Stealing Statues

Dream

My family and I are at a rebuilt coliseum watching some mock-gladiatorial games. My Aunt Libby points out one of the nearby statues and says she doesn’t like it. The statue is a Roman style bust, but the head has a partially collapsed wall built around it and the plinth is extra broad to accommodate this. My “Uncle” (he wasn’t actually married into the family) Rob steps up to refute her and says that the statue is well built, strong, defensible, and hard to see into. As he speaks you can hear his increasing regard and I realize that he sees this statue as a sort of ideal man. Later, I’m in a cave near where the family is staying. While I’m in the cave my mother’s cat Oprah arrives. There's a rabbit behind her and the rabbit is towing the statue from earlier. This is done without rope or anything, so the statue is just sliding along behind the rabbit as if by magic. Then another cat and rabbit pair comes into the cave and stash another artifact. I don’t recognize the other cat but it starts facing off against Oprah. Oprah is able to scare it off but as it leaves it takes the statue with it (or it’s rabbit does?), and I don’t see which direction they escape to. My family shows up and Rob asks where his statue is. I tell him that another cat came and stole it. I’m see the cat in question skulking in some nearby bushes and point it out. My Uncle Boone says that he'll follow the cat and track it to where it hid our statue.

Analysis

The statue, and my uncle’s description of it, is what my culture seems to believes the ideal man to be. Men should be strong, unemotional, and capable of defending themselves. Basically, we are supposed to build a wall around ourselves, and the fact that the one on the statue is partially collapsed implies that we’re under attack. The whole idea of Roman busts implies heroic achievements, which is another ideal we're supposed to meet. I have mixed feelings about these standards. The strength and self-sufficiency is something that I admire, but I don’t support the denial of emotions or focus on accomplishments. Being in control of your emotions is okay, but pretending they don’t exist, especially around other people, doesn’t seem healthy. Achieving hero status and settling for nothing short of unanimous approval from our peers seems like an unrealistic goal. 

Auguries

Cats are a lot smarter than we know and rabbits are magical. We should all be worried if they ever team up.