Dreams are interesting. I seldom, almost never, remember dreaming, or a dream. But this morning I remembered that I had dreamt, and what I had dreamt about.
In my dream I was walking around in an institutional building, full of office people. The office people were being transformed one by one into zombies, by a virus, through touch. The zombies acted very friendly, always smiling, and they wanted so much to touch others, to touch me. But the virus was behind their friendly faces, and it had its own agenda. I spent my time in that dream navigating the halls and rooms of the institution, avoiding touch. The zombies would begin to fade through time, eventually fading out of existence. I awoke while trying to lock a door…
Chatting with Attila I realized that the dream was symbolic for my experiences the last few days.
Last year I tried to move my life savings from one banking institution to another, the money left my account in Institution One, and did not arrive at Institution Two. It took several weeks of doggedly calling, and pursuing the issue, until suddenly one day, the money showed up in my account at Institution Two. There was no explanation. Institution One had been decidedly unhelpful in resolving the issue. The experience made quite an impression on me.
On Saturday I had to deal with Institution One again, dealing with an account I’d had since 2006. But true to experience, the institution was once again decidedly unhelpful, perhaps one might have described the behaviour as obstructive. After days of dealing with their security people, and customer service, I finally resolved the issue this morning. I’ve closed my account with Institution One, and hopefully will not have to deal with them again.
The dream, I think, relates to the friendly voices, that offered no assistance at Institution One, and that ran me through a maze of dead ends for days. Last night when I retired for the night, I knew I would be dealing with Institution One again this morning. And so the dream had an institutional setting, friendliness with ominous actions, a maze of halls and rooms and doors (concrete/digital), and the optimism that if I kept going and succeeded, the zombies would fade away.
Institution One gifted me a dream that I remember. I am not sure that I am grateful for that.
Worldly
Weather
Updated on Mon, Mar 27, 7:15 PM
3°C
FEELS LIKE 3
Partly cloudy
Wind 11 NW km/h
Humidity 78 %
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Sunrise 6:58 AM
Wind gust 1 km/h
Pressure 101.8 kPa
Ceiling 9100 m
Sunset 7:28 PM
Quote
“Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: You don’t give up.”
Anne Lamott
1954 –
I hope “Institution Two” gives you much better experiences!
Joan, thank you! Institution Two is a sticks and bricks institution, and I find it reliable, and predictable… if they say they are going to do something, it happens.
Lesson learned: brick and mortar shops may work harder at customer satisfaction because of the possibility of face-to-face interactions. Or perhaps, anonymity breeds sloth?
Teri, I think you make a good point, bricks and mortar shops have a more immediate feedback loop, real live customers. And anonymity certainly leads some individuals to forget they are not playing a video game, the people they deal with are alive and don’t follow an artificial algorithm. I think Institution One will eventually disappear, they aren’t responsive enough to real people, and people have lots of more desirable options.