Odd dream

It was a good holiday overall. Even though I was getting to bed later than expected, I was not overly stressed about the morning. Or, at least I didn’t think I was, until I had this odd dream.

My boss is the lobbyist for our company, and when the State Congress is in session, he spends about half his day at the State Capitol. As our Congress recently concluded, he’s been back in the office more, which is an okay thing, since he is cool.

In the dream, he is taking me and his wife (who also works here) on a tour of…I’m not sure what. Call it a kind of place for congressmen to meet when not in their offices or in the chamber. It is kinda like a library; each senator or representative has a desk that looks like a library table, and then somewhere behind their desk they have another library table, with several chairs for meetings.

The plan is open – there are no partition walls, and all the books are in shelves along the exterior walls. The books then, actually belong to the congressman whose area they are in. This building itself is three rectangular sections, laid out in a “U”-shape. The base of the U is probably 150-200′ long, and 50-60′ wide. There are 7 or 8 reps here – two on each of the short sides, with 2 or three in between them on the exterior wall. The interior wall holds the arches into the upright sides of the U, and an informal kind of waiting area – not unlike the browsing tables at a library.

Its very library like. Did I mention that?

Anyway, for some reason, I was changing clothes just inside the entrance to the building, when my boss came through and waved for me to follow him. I believe I was expecting this – that he was going to give Judy and I a brief tour, but I didn’t expect to be holding my slacks in my hands when we started the tour.

I was wearing a button down shirt, so the tails (front and back) pretty much covered my underwear, but I still had bare legs and dark shoes. He walked through, pointing out the desks of various senators or representatives who were mostly on the phone or talking to constituents at their desk. No one seemed to mind or even notice the intrusion of the tour – my boss is a likeable guy, and it was assumed that he knew what he was doing, and he was welcome there with whatever guests he wanted to bring. But everyone did look up and stare at the guy walking past with no pants.

My boss, for his part, never looked back. He could tell we were staying with him, and he had no desire to dally in these people’s areas. After passing down one side and the base of the U, as we entered the other side he paused to ask if we had any questions so far. Judy asked if it would be okay to stop for a moment so I could put on my pants.

My boss turned, and with a Tsk-ing kind of tone, admonished me. He didn’t at all seem SUPRISED that I didn’t have pants on, instead he seemed mildly irratated that I had done something to slow up the tour, and maybe even embarrasing. He said “There’s so much power in this room, and even just the importance of what they talk about…. thats why I wish you would dress better more often, in respect for the people we interact with”.

I am a casual-dress person. I can be casual-classic, or casual-contemporary, but I don’t put a major emphasis on the statelyness of my fashion. My clothes are clean and hole free, but I prefer polo shirts, and refuse to button the top button on a dress shirt, even with a tie. At my last performance review, my boss and I had a running gag (it was a serious request, but it was handled tongue-in-cheek) for me to “please try to wear a tie once a week – thats all I ask!”.

Other than that, this has never really been an issue.

So when my boss in a dream tells me something like that, my brain woke up and realized there’s some other message here.

I paused the dream at this point, and briefly analyzed all the current data registers. I was trying to find the dynamic model that caused this response. Finding none, I let the dream play on, and instead focused on my response. I replied: “But that is exactly why I do not dress up for them. Its part of who I am, and there are two reasons. One, you see distinguished power in this room. Intellect. I do not see them operating at a level beyond my own. In fact, given the information they know, I would come to the same conclusions they do – assuming their conclusions are correct in the first place.”

“And that ties into the second. I don’t respect ‘title’. I respect ability. I respect action. Sure, they have power, but show me where they are using their power for good. Show me where they are making the right decisions,show me where they are living by their faith – show me where they are making humble choices in direct opposition to the nature of power, and then I may respect them. I wouldn’t wear a tie to meet with President Clinton, and I might not wear one to meet with Bush.”

The dream went on from there, but in the back of my mind I kept analyzing my response and the dream in the first place. The dream eventually decayed into normal thought.

I still don’t know what it means, except that I felt it necessary to express that concept. That I am as smart as anyone else, and that title doesn’t impress me.

As a post-script, I told this tale to Judy. She almost fell out of her chair. The part she found most funny was my words describing her husband’s finding me with no pants: “He turned, and he didn’t seem really surprised that I didn’t have any pants – just a little miffed that I would embarass the department.”

She said that his response was equally funny when she told him the story later.