March | In Your Dreams

A DREAM COLUMN

This month’s column marks two years(!!) of In Your Dreams. Two years of peeking inside your dreamscapes, and telling you what all that noise might just be about. Thanks for letting us in there. It’s a privilege to analyze your dreams about your exes, or giving a work presentation with no pants (ya pervs). And thanks to this month’s dreamer, who comes to us after not having so much fun at the fair…

I’m on a very tall, slow-moving ferris wheel with my sister, and when we get to the top she hands me her purse and says “Will you hold this? I’ll be right back.” She proceeds to climb down the side of the thing and walk off into the crowd. The operator stops the ferris wheel because I guess even in dreams you’re not supposed to do that. So I’m stuck at the top, and the other riders are all side-eyeing me like I’m part of the problem. Then I accidentally drop her purse and it falls upside down and everything in it rains down on the people below. So now they’ve really got an issue with me, and the ferris wheel starts to rock a little bit with their collective annoyance. Not sure what it all means, but please tell me it’s my sister’s fault.

Hmm, well, she did leave you there holding the bag, we’ll give you that. No one likes to be treated like the girlie who’s down to stay behind and watch everyone’s stuff. If you’re feeling taken for granted in your waking life by your sister (maybe not a literal relative but someone sister…esque), this might be a sign to check in with how you feel about that dynamic. Is it a one-off? A pattern?

It can be hard to give family the benefit of the doubt, especially when weighed against history, and to be fair, we only have your side of the story. Where your sister went and why is not a factor. It’s possible she’s clueless what she’s asking of you, even though it feels almost comically obvious, stuck as you are on top of a carnival ride, a disgruntled mob coalescing beneath you. She might not have realized there would be consequences for you (or that you would drop all her stuff on their heads). Then again, with a relationship as complex and intimate as sisterhood, you both may not be acting as your best selves because you’re stuck in a cycle where existing roles get reinforced, whether they fit or not (ferris wheel metaphor alert!!).

We’ve written before about how the people in our dreams are interpretable as facets of the self. So let’s think about those angry riders as an extension of you, rather than some external source of judgement or blame you can’t control. Do you bear some resentment, being the responsible one? Is the side-eye coming from inside the house? 

To be clear, we are not advocating for you to suddenly rebrand as a chaotic flake. The world needs its emergency contacts, now more than ever. But do your best to be honest with yourself about what you want to prioritize right now.