Occasionally I'll wake up with some pretty strange things on my mind. No. . . not those things, sometimes jokes (and I wake up laughing), sometimes answers to problems. Often I'll dream about a painting I'm working on, how I should modify or continue with it. The other morning I woke up with a full fleged Allegory. Nothing I'd ever heard before and not bad for a dream-state creation.
Rather than couching it in the entertaining story form that allegories are known for, I'll just relate the visual aspect and the meaning as it occurred to me. . .which then would make it a metaphor. . . right . . .or something. As with most moral narratives, the conclusion is not necessarily one that's never been heard of before, just perhaps not considered often enough:
There was the bed of a truck. Actually, the image switched back and forth from a truck bed to a wagon bed. Packages, boxes, all kinds of things were being piled into the truck bed. The load got very high and it was time to move it. When I looked for the cab of the truck, it was behind the bed. . .behind the load. The vision switched to the loaded wagon. . .and the horses were hooked up behind the wagon.
As often happens in the dream state, the meaning was multi-layered, yet complete, and came in a flash:
Within the same "interpretation flash", I wondered if the moral held true for every form of load transport. After all, sometimes trains put the load in front of the engine and they get where they're suppose to be going. Then I realized. . .
Ahh. . . “Tracks”, no decision making. The train is only going somewhere it’s been before. So, unless you want to go to the same place, over and over again. . . . .
. . Then I woke up.
Now how complete and sweet was that. Though it wasn't a joke, I awoke with a smile on my face just the same. Later on I was thinking about the idiom?. . .the metaphor? . .the old saying, whatever it’s called: "Don't put the cart before the horse". The moral there really has to do with "doing things out of order"; but now, I'll always think of it as having one more meaning.(Joseph Holbrook © 2006)
JOSEPH HOLBROOK
All the personal baggage and bad experiences in life must be dealt with, then put behind you, or, you won't be able to see where you're going. You can always turn around to inspect what's behind you, and use what you need to move along, but you simply can't effectively go forward if you keep all the baggage in front of you. You may believe you're "being aware", just trying to be attentive, avoiding mistakes and learning from the load, but in fact. . .it only obscures the way.