A Lilliputian Oasis in a Dream
Introduction:
Everybody dreams. Have you ever tried to write down accounts of your dreams? There was a time when I conducted a little “experiment of the mind”, where I would make it a point to try to write down what I could remember of the dreams that I had, shortly after awakening, while the memories were still fresh in my mind. After a while, I accumulated a number of written accounts of the dreams I had.
In this entry, I present an account which is based on a dream I had on the night of November 21, 2009. As best as I remember, it was one continuous dream, but I have put little subtitles in the account, to add a little clarity to the flow of the content in the dream.
The Dream:
The Little Oasis on the Rooftop
I dreamed that I was at a former employer’s place, but this time, I had taken on an empathetic view of their position, not the resentful view of an “exploited” employee. There was an out of the way stairway in the building that led up to what appeared to be a rooftop lawn, with an entrance that opened up under a grass-covered mound, and onto an area that was just like a good sized grassy backyard, but the faded stucco wall that completely surrounded the “yard” was there to remind you that it was located a few stories up, on a rooftop. A small trail had been worn at the foot of the entrance, which faded into the grass a few feet out. There was a flat area near the middle of the rooftop yard where the grass was short, surrounded by many small, rather shaggy mounds, interspaced with small shrubs. Not exactly a well manicured setting, actually, but the children and grandchildren of the owners’ family seemed to enjoy playing in it. They even had their own “dodgeball contests” in the small flat area. A little fountain fed by the water of a small artesian well trickled from one of the mounds, and there were rough stones surrounding the water source, which flowed as a “Liliputian” sized stream for a little distance, before fading out. I don’t know how they got the water to and from the mini springlet, but suspect that there must have been some rather clever engineering involved to accomplish this little feat, and I don’t recall there having been any problems with water leakage or seepage in the building; and it was a rather old building. Meanwhile, back in the building, business went on as usual, with many of the employees not even knowing about the “rooftop backyard”. I myself had sort of stumbled upon the out of the way stairway when I was looking for something, and had thereby gotten a sneak peek of the “secret retreat”.
An Oasis in the Middle of the Corporate Desert
Oddly enough, there was not much grumbling or complaining among those who worked there, and the owners even seemed to have a concern for their workers in an almost personal kind of way. It seemed to differ from the more typical “what can I get out of them to maximize my profits” kind of attitude which seemed to be so prevalent in these contexts. Could this at least partially explain why there was almost none of the complaining and discontent among the employees that is normally so prevalent in most workplaces? It’s not that there were any truly exorbitant bonuses or outlandish company parties given, although there were indeed certain incentives and rewards; but there just seemed to be, for some reason, an overall atmosphere of good cheer most of the time. And the company building did seem to have the reputation for having been built on the site of a “hidden artesian spring”. Indeed, there was a place inside of the building where a marble sculpture incorporating a fountain fed by some of the water from the spring was viewable by all; what they may not have known is that the water was also somehow piped up to the roof to feed the little spring in the rooftop playground.
A Well-Kept Secret
The building was constructed on a sloping site, and its stone-columned facade faced a rather busy street. The firm had been around for a good while; in fact, there were a number of generations of family owners involved, making it a part of their heritage. So the firm had become a familiar fixture in the community. Obviously, PR was very important to keep the company in graces with those who knew about it, and so they would regularly sponsor neighborhood events and causes, especially for children. But that secret little “roof top backyard” was somehow kept a family and company secret, and I was one of the few who actually got to see it…
NOTES: The above story is based on what I could best remember from a dream; where I may not have clearly remembered parts of the dream, I filled in with things which I thought up while writing it, but tried to follow a “feeling” or “intuition” about the dream when I did this.
It’s hard to explain this “feeling” or “intuition”, but I tried my best to try to remain true to the ETHOS, or “overall spirit” of the dream. (This might allude to the workings of the subconscious mind-)
While I admit that I have not always had the best feelings towards the corporate world, in this case, the firm that I dreamed about might be said to be a kind of “Lilliputian Oasis in a Corporate Desert”…
A Lilliputian Oasis in a Dream