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                                             October 14, 2022

I had a climbing dream the other day-- a common theme in
my dreams, and much preferred to the car-careening out
of control dream--

I was walking around in an unfamiliar, very hilly
neighborhood, walking downhill towards a supermarket with
some friends.  I was standing in a gateway for a pedestrian
path that headed in the right direction, I thought, and
seemed to be in use by a number of people.  Certainly I
could see some people up ahead, and there were some other
people coming up behind me.

When I looked down the trail, I realized it was *very*
steep, and in fact turned into stair cases in a number of
places-- I worried my friends behind me weren't going to be
able to wheel their cart down it, and I turned to wave them
off-- but they'd already gone by, they were continuing on
and it looked like they were going to turn left, taking a
much less steep route.

So that was okay, but I was already heading the way I was
going, so I decided to keep on.

I belatedly realized that this trail wasn't just steep, it
was badly maintained and practically in ruins in places.
You had to pick your way through very carefully, and it
continued to get steeper and rougher the further went.
                                                          
Then there was a section that had completely eroded away       
and the only obvious way to climb down was to slide down a     
vertical metal beam protruding from the ruins of the           
structure.  I decided to keep going rather than go back--      
this struck me as pretty amusing, and I turned back to         
joke about it with the guy who was following me.  He was       
no where to be seen.  Presumably he'd given up a long time     
ago and climbed back up.                                       
                                                               
The vertical metal beam wasn't obviously rusty, though it     
was getting pretty thin, and as I transferred my weight to
it, I was afraid it would break off.  I clung to it as it
wobbling back and forth, a long springy piece of thin
metal.  I grabbed it on both side with my shoes and eased
up with my hands to slide down it...

And that was it.  Presumably I made it through--
I don't actually die in these dreams.

The common elements are:

  o  choosing a direction on a whim though it's obviously a
     difficult route, and there's no particular reason to take it.

  o  discovering belatedly the route is even harder than
     expected, but feeling committed to keep going--
     the further you go, the harder it is to back track.

  o  you reach a point where the climbing involved is very hairy,
     there's a real question about whether I'll be able to make it.





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