Correspondence

Not Long Ago a local newspaper interviewed me on the symbolic nature of colour and ran an article on the subject. The following letter came to me from an elderly lady describing a dream she had had and offering her interpretation. The dream followed on the heels of the death of her husband, who had been a person of note and who had left a considerable fortune.

‘… Though I almost never recall my own dreams, some eight years ago, after my husband had been killed in a plane crash—during the rough time filled with tributes and tough decisions and adjustments—I had a vivid dream that I was being given (I don't know by whom as the background was blurred and brown) a magnificent oriental style rug whose pattern—in the cold colours, though I prefer the warm, earthy colours—was woven of emeralds, sapphires, rubies, diamonds—all tied together with threads of silver. I was trying to be gracious about saying “Thank you, but no thank you”. I was terrified, thinking, “I can cope with everything but this”, and sure I’d have to spend the rest of my life walking on it with my feet bare. I woke up weeping.

The only interpretation I could think of was that acting responsibly about what he had left me was going to be endlessly painful. It was a whole new area I'd have to deal with (business), a new language to learn at an advanced age for which I had no training or background.

Maybe my interpretation was wrong, but I've found that money is very expensive and, while I wouldn't have chosen it, I've done a lot of growing (1 think) and my life is still not dull.’

I think the dream remarkable and the writer's comments and interpretation equally remarkable. It reminds me of your definition of creativity in a recent article in this journal (Vol. 23, No. 2, p. 182)—‘the capacity to connect and integrate’. Perhaps too often we hear what the experts say about dream interpretation, and here is genuine synthesis and natural individuation sans the professionals, who sometimes think they have a corner o