I asked for a kiss, you gave me a box of snakes!

 Dreams. What do they mean? Last night, I had a dream that it was my birthday.  We were having a party in our house and I asked my wife for a kiss. She replied that she had something far better. She gave me a lovely box wrapped in extravagent paper. I was excited, but when I opened it, it was a box of snakes. As I am extremely phobic of snakes, I actually woke up in a panic. My wife had already got up. When I came down stairs she simply laughed and said "that is quite funny". 

What does it mean? I have no idea. My mother used to say that if you dreamed of snakes, it meant there would be a death. What does a whole box of them mean? As you might imagine, I have felt slightly ill at ease all morning. I very rarely dream of snakes. What could have brought that on? Well there are several things. I went for a beer and a curry last night with a mate of mine. I sometimes have vivid dreams when I've had a curry and beer, so that is the mundane answer. Another reason? On the way home, I got a message, out of the blue, from a former friend, who I have no wish to associate with, following some absolutely awful behaviour on his part. We have not been in contact all year, but out of the blue, bold as brass, I get a message as though nothing has happened. I was absolutely furious when I got in. My wife told me I should simply ignore it. I do listen to her at such moments, so this was the course of action I chose. It wasn't my preferred course of action, but probably the most sensible. 

When I got in, I watched the news. Perhaps one of the biggest snakes in modern times was the top story. To me, it beggars belief that America, the richest and most powerful nation on earth have chosen a leader with so little personal integrity. I've never really wanted to be the King. Can you imagine having to invite such people around for dinner and to have to be nice to him. A mate observed yesterday that he's had a lot of experience dealing with people like that, having Andrew as his brother.

Then there is Facebook. When I joined Facebook, all I really wanted was to keep up with what my friends were doing. These days, it almost never shows me what my friends are up to. It decides what it thinks I want to see. Oddly, this most days is videos of snakes. It turns my stomach, but I am too thick to get it to stop. This morning, oddly, it wasn't snakes, it was a man hitting a large cat with a chair. To be honest, that was more sickening than snakes. After I'd navigated away from tehe page, I realised I should have reported it. It was not a UK clip. If it was I'd have reported it to the police. 

It made me realise that there are worse things than snakes. When I was a child, my Dad, who was born in the outback of Australia, used to scare the life out of me with stories of poisonous snakes. That may be where the phobia came from. One day, I mentioned that I was terrified of snakes. Dad replied that they are nothing to be scared of. He said they are just animals and if you treat them respectfully, they leave you alone. He then said do you want to know what the worst monster of all is? I said "Yes". He

picked my up and said "I will show you, close your eyes". He picked me up and we went into another room. He said "Open your eyes". To my shock, I was looking in a mirror. He then said "all the worst, most terrible things are done by people. People Like Hitler casually killed millions of people, no animal has ever done anything like that". I was too young to understand.

It is quite attractive to think of Trump as some sort of despot, but he was democratically elected and his party has a majority in the US parliaments. He hasn't set up death camps, he hasn't jailed opponents. It is pretty clear that he lacks the gumption to actually stand up to other leaders who are breaking international law. The only people who get a kicking under the Trumpian world are those who can't defend themselves. Yesterday, he launced a £15 billion lawsuit against the New York Times. This is a man who lectured Sir Keir Starmer on 'Free Speech'. Why? He didn't like what the NYT said about him. He is extraordinarily thin skinned. 

He craves the attention of despicable people. Karl Marx wrote "history repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce". I don't know if he had a crystal ball and saw Trump in it. I often wonder how Trump thinks history will judge him. An unkind friend suggested "rather harshly, because most of the people who support him aren't smart enough to write history books".  The strange thought occurred to me that I could draw an anolgy between my dream and Donald Trump. I suspect that from my perspective, voting for Donald Trump was like asking for a box of snakes, but getting a box of worms. Much as Trump might view himself as a King Cobra, to me, he's actually more of a lugworm in bling. (pictures courtesy of @Grok). 

How the rest of us see him

How Trump sees himself