I am in a full-sized blue van with Mom and Daniel and a very active little girl in a red dress. The
van is not moving and has only one row of two seats behind the driver's and passenger seats. The
cargo area behind the back seats is empty. Mom is standing behind the driver's seat, facing the
back seat and I am sitting in the other back seat. Daniel is standing between the two back seats.
The little girl jumps in the driver's seat then races back to the cargo area. Mom wants her to
settle down so she grabs her as she runs by, picks her up and throws her down into the back seat. I
am shocked by Mom's anger and I shout at her, "Don't do that to her! You are angry!" or something
to that effect. It occurs to me that Mom might have treated me that way when I was little and I
burst into tears, overwhelmed by sadness.
The little girl in the red dress seems to represent joy, or perhaps feelings in general, freely
expressed and unconstrained by fear or thought. Mom represents a more analytical approach to life
together with an aversion to the messiness and risk of unrestrained emotions. I have lived in
tension between the two, always drawn to people who seem to feel freely but always fearful of pain
and anger whether in myself or others. This dream appears to explore a source of that fear, though
I cannot recall any incident even remotely similar to what it depicts.
FWIW the blue van places the dream in the same general time frame as the wool blanket in my dream on
2/24, the period after college when I was trying to become an adult. I traveled to fairs and sold
Quick 'n Brite + cleaner out of a blue
Econovan. The little girl is inspired by my niece Katie. Daniel again represents me.