In my dream, I am at a large family gathering. Everyone seems quite happy and chatty. I recognize my Mom clearly and others rather vaguely -- including two of my brothers. [And it just occurs to me that those three people are dead.] The gathering includes considerable amounts and varieties of food -- and so there are a lot of cooking and dining dishes that need to be washed.
Someone has already been cleaning a lot of the dishes and pots and pans, but seems to have decided to join the party rather than continue cleaning up. And it has fallen to me to take over the cleaning responsibilities. No one has volunteered to help me, but I don't mind. I recognize the importance of family being together and I'm content to play my part in helping that to work. After all, people may need more clean plates or glasses or silverware any time soon.
As I work away, I start to feel a bit of resentment. I took over the dish duties when no one else would but now I feel as if I'm being taken advantage of. I start to consider how I might get someone else to -- at least -- help with this task.
As I'm considering this, one of my old girlfriends walks into the kitchen area. Our relationship took place back during my time in either high school or college. The relationship has ended, but we're still comfortable chatting with each other from time to time. I'm surprised to see her here.
She says "I know that [someone's name] thinks you're a Man of Mystery, but I know that you..."
I don't let her get any farther with her statement. My explosive anger is caused in part by my growing resentment about doing all these dishes but also because she's about to give me her analysis as to who she thinks I really am. And I feel she never really did understand me despite her feeling absolutely sure that she does.
I unleash a torrent of words at her:
-- denigrating her notion that she really understands me
-- expressing anger that she just shows up in the middle of my family's gathering and wants to spout some nonsense about who I really am
-- trying to cover my concern that I actually do put on a facade of being a Man of Mystery
-- and a little bit of "Geez, at least you could offer to help me with the dishes."
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