I dreamed my wife agreed to take naked pictures of me at the mall. We were in a far corner, the loading dock/storage area with pipes and equipment blocking the walls. It was late, after closing. Together we would liberate the glorious human form from the suffocation of consumer culture.
Only a few other people prowled around inside this storage area, and they were bohemians who would understand and perhaps help out. I was shy and afraid of the mall security guards. My wife told me to get undressed and she calmly exited to the parking lot to get a camera from the car. I dashed back and forth, still clothed, inside the storage area. There were more people now. I worried they'd make noise, alert the security guards and we'd all be sent home.
There was a knock on the outside door, and I pulled it open, expecting my wife. Two naked men stood in the doorway, side by side, stern expressions on their faces like marines. God dammit! The security guards would see them! I opened the door and they shuffled inside, moving together like siamese twins. Had they been discovered already? Was I the only one who didn't want to get thrown out of the mall? Am I the only human being alive who knows how to behave in public? It was now a huge gathering, many dozens of people dancing and talking and banging on the walls. My wife returned with the camera. The naked marines shuffled together into the crowd, still expressionless. It was chaos, pandemonium, the heyday of disco. The security guards were bound to hear something. They never actually showed up. I knew they would.
Do you dream about naked marines often?
Nope. First time.
Hmm. So what does this dream mean?
I think the mall represents the artifice of consumer culture that shapes, and
distracts from, our every human exchange; the nude modeling represents the beginnings
of mature, primal self-revelation and self-discovery; and the party in the storage
area represents the inevitable, vital point of connection between the two, where
all communication and most real human experience takes place. Nude modeling
in a mall loading dock is a metaphor for the soul struggling for expression
and liberation in a world of commerce, patrolled by poorly paid mall police.
So what did the naked marines represent?
They represent the muscular human spirit that is not threatened or controlled
by the scrawny mall police.
Sure about that?
Mostly positive.
So why weren't you a naked marine?
Because I'm a wuss, okay? I'm feeling left out of the human primal mall experience.
I gotta go watch more sunsets, go to work naked, go dancing...
So what might be the first step?
Uh...carrying the camera with us? Not leaving it in the car?
Huh?
For naked modeling.
Oh?
'Xcuse me. I gotta go to the mall.
Copyright 2001 Betsy Shebang