MARY JANE’S DREAMS.

MARY JANE’S DREAMS. Retirement should be as carefree as possible. At least that’s what I think. I aspire to do nothing and look forward to the day when I wake up with nothing on my “to do” list. The Wall Street Journal for Monday, December 11, 2006 had an article about how retired people still have anxiety dreams about work. So do I. It said that the majority of dreams in general are negative even though not necessarily nightmares. The dreams I remember are usually somewhat negative or at best boring. My wife Mary Jane has always had interesting dreams. Once when I was going out to vote early in the morning, she sat up and said, “I dreamed I voted 98 times, 97 times in a pink chiffon gown, once in a black dress.” Then she fell back asleep. Before her oral exam in Victorian literature she said to me, “You’ve been having an affair with Hetty Sorrel.,” and fell back asleep. As our friend Lee knew, Hetty Sorrel is a curly haired young woman in ADAM BEDE. Curly haired young women in George Eliot don’t do as well as curly haired young men, and Hetty apparently comes to a bad end. Last night Mary Jane dreamed that we were preparing for a party. She was making little sandwiches and I was using cookie cutters to make them into Christmas shapes. I don’t know whether this was an anxiety dream.