Dream of falling teeth

Carl Jung was psychiatrist focused on the content of dreams and looked to what they may reveal, rather than what they may be concealing. He also believed that dreams represented current situations in the dreamers walking life.  Drams can be used as a guide in walking life to attain a sense of completeness or wholeness and help us to self-actualize. The dreams role is to help find wholeness and the different aspects of personality will appear in the dream to help achieve that wholeness.

Curiously a couple of nights ago I dreamed that my teeth had fallen. I had my teeth crumbled in my hands. I was able to grab a tooth and pull it from my mouth. It was very shocking. At first I thought that this dream had to do with the fact that I’ve been around dentistry all my life, (my father being a dentist and I have also worked at a surgeon’s office pulling teeth). But by taking the time to analyze and think more in depth for different meanings or symbols that teeth might have, I thought it might be just a coincidence and not that the dream actually means something else.

Teeth could mean different things to different people. I’ve asked people around my house and they all gave me different interpretations that were good in getting me started at brainstorming about what is it that I’m so worry about lately. Teeth reflect a good appearance. Nice teeth = good appearance and how others perceive you. But when I think about it, I’m not really someone who worries about his appearance, so I don’t understand how I could relate my dream with my appearance. After brainstorming more about the potential meaning of this dream, another idea came to mind. Teeth are a strong symbol in (my opinion) of power. Teeth are used to bite, tear, chew, etc, which are key essentials to survival. We have to bite, tear, chew if we want to eat something, otherwise it could lead to malnutrition (as an example for weakness). This idea of power makes more sense to me than the other idea of how I look. It is true that lately I’ve been feeling frustrated, tired because of a big project I was trying to get before the year ended, but because of the delays in city permits the project will have to wait until next year. This issue have been driving me insane because of the security that it would mean to have that job secure instead of having to wait until I come back to get the approval.

work, work, work

Why do I accept a job duty that I don’t like? Well, to be honest with you I would work in anything, doing whatever because if I don’t then someone else would take my place. In a way I do it because of security, I feel save by having a job and money. I have to work in order to be able to put food on the table and also a roof over my head. I have worked all my life and now my priority is getting a higher education in order to succeed. My first real job was as a car detailer earning $6.00/hr. I worked there for three months earning enough money to buy my first car. Then I quitted that job because I hated it! But at the end, my work had paid off I have earned a car for all my hard work. I have also worked in construction, washing dishes, etc. In a way this is how I see things; I work knowing that I will gain something from that work, if I see no progress then it means that I need to change something because it’s not meeting my expectations. The jobs that I’ve worked on, had served as aids for me while going to college. After finishing high school I went to college and obtained a certificate as an RDAEF in the dental field, which is what I do now. It pays well, about five times more than my first job and I enjoy doing it. This job as an RDAEF helps me economically while I’m back in school.

I had to work in things that I did not enjoy so that I could take myself to another level, like taking myself back to school so that I could go forward. Now, I have other aspirations, I would like to go to dental school.  If you ask me why I work I will tell you that I do it for the money.  But if that's entirely true, how do you explain people like Bill Gates, who is worth more than we can imagine per year and yet who throws himself into his jobs as if his next meal depended on it? There is something else in human nature and work. I sometimes feel that if I’m not doing something I feel like I’m wasting my time.  

I think that in today’s hard work is less a guarantee for success than ever before. Because the rules of the game have changed, old promises about hard work are unrewarded by the big companies. It probably has to do with the high number of unemployment and high competition. Most people in big companies feel positive about the kind of work they do, my sister in law would say that she dislikes her company. She feels like she is what she does, not where she works. She feels used, without a recognition but she feels that if she doesn’t do her job, then the company can find someone else for even half her salary. Why does people worked? I would say that the most common reasons are; because they need to pay a mortgage, to make the world a better place, to help themselves and others on intellectually and maybe to perfect their technical skills. Some people work because they believe they can make the world a better place. While all these people have different reasons for working, they all, in the end, are searching for the same thing: self-esteem. Work really defines who you are. So is a person's self-esteem measured by success at work? Not a new idea, but still a very powerful one. One by doing a good job at work can increase their self-esteem, making them feel good intellectually, physically depending on their job description. Overall I feel that every person needs to be happy at what they do in order for them to produce, generate as much as they can at their work place. But again what is the limit at which we say that’s enough? I feel that enough is when our job gets to a point, which affects us personally and emotionally, when we take our jobs to our own house affecting others. Our home is supposed to be our refuge, the place where we rest from a hard day. Not a place where we take our problems, but I understand that sometimes it is uncontrollable.  

Kind

In “The Guest” I think that my favorite character is Daru, because in a way I can identify myself by the actions he takes. Like him I’m also a person who tries to solve problems the non-violent way. In addition I also have in my mind that everyone should act the same way, expecting nothing more than sincerity and kindness from others. In this story the Arab is a prisoner of Balducci, an old friend of Daru. Balducci wants Daru to take the prisoner to the police headquarters because of a murder. Throughout the story, Daru is a person who does not like violence; he likes everything to be peaceful. He is kind towards the Arab even though the Arab has killed somebody. When Balducci brought the Arab to the schoolhouse, Daru kindly welcomed them into the room, and heated up the classroom for them to be more comfortable. The Arab’s hands were still tied by a rope and Daru asked Balducci to untie his rope. I admire this action because Daru treats every human being the same in his “house”.  After Balducci left, Daru treated the Arab like a visitor, not like a prisoner. He would leave the Arab wonder by himself in the room, he would feed the Arab, and waited to see if the Arab would escape. But he never did. In my life by doing the right things, by treating people the way they deserve to be treated and just by being humble I have learned that everything usually flows smooth and turns out right.