The dreamcatcher

I woke myself up this morning apparently alarmed over my inability to breathe.

It took a while to separate the dream about my inability to breathe from the reality of my less serious difficulty breathing.

A woman was displeased with me for not doing my job. She wasn't any person I recognized from outside my dream world. Still, she was clearly my immediate supervisor at whatever job I wasn't doing. She was not happy with my unwillingness or inability to do an unspecified task.

I tried explaining that I just needed something to end my problem breathing. I couldn't put my finger on exactly what that remedy was and that added to my problem with my supervisor. I could tell my explanation and confusion wasn't helping.

And then the scene abruptly shifts. I found myself seated in front of the desk of a guy in a white shirt and tie. He too was unrecognizable as anyone in particular, but again I clearly understood that he was my boss's boss.

Honest, I explained to him. I'm not shirking my job. I want to do the work, I said. I just can't breathe. Really.

My boss's boss seemed marginally more sympathetic than my boss.

Then I woke up.

For a guy who works from home for more than one woman and no men in white shirt and tie, that was a lot of angst over my job performance. Where did that come from?

When my son was in elementary school we put an American Indian dreamcatcher on his wall and explained to him its purpose. At least my wife explained its purpose. I'd never heard of dreamcatchers and considered the concept about as likely as the tooth fairy.

Still, The Kid appeared to by comforted by it. And now I'm wondering whether I should build one for myself out of talismans from my home office. I imagine a network cable hoop with thin copper wires knotted into a loose netting inside the hoop. Dangling from the hoop would be USB thumb drives and wired mice.