THAT DAY

Christmas at my family's. We watch the Nutcracker Suite with Baryshnikov and Gelsey Kirkland. She's so fluid and French and slinky as a cat. Sexy. But what a stupid plot!

Soon as the TV's off, the quarreling starts. Our dad scolds my sister Miriel for trying to treat her nonstandard arthritis herself. "You're an amateur! You should respect doctors more!" Miriel points out that they had 20 years to work on her (costing thousands) and never helped. My father ignores her (valid) point, and keeps weaseling--pretending not to hear her, selectively, so as not to address her arguments. Digs at her all evening. And our mom calmly goes along...

THAT NIGHT

I'm in a shop full of coffee mugs. A sign says CLASSICS ON SALE. Apparently classics = antiques--that is, any mug with a chipped rim or broken handle! Sale? Discounted from antique prices to... normal. That is, quite pricy.

They're stacked in a lattice, rather precariously--to examine them seems risky. But I do, and find most are bland pastels I don't even like. But I find three mugs with deep colors and designs showing people and creatures, telling stories. Now these I like!

1. A Navaho girl herding sheep, guarding against coyotes. Well, not physical sheep. Just spiritual sheep. Businessmen in gray wool suits. MBA-A-A...
2. That classic fairytale Goldilocks and the Board of Directors. Directors for the World! Half are Indians, half are animal people. I wish.
3. A witch's cottage where all the creatures in the Zodiac live--plus some visiting constellations. The equine ones are sexy--Sagittarius the centaur archer is a mare, and so's Pegasus. I suspect this mug tells a story too, like the Bayeux Tapestry... but in mythic times did they have a left-right convention? I'm not so sure which direction you read it!

NOTES, YEARS LATER

• Mugs with creatures: Miriel gave cups with animals on them. She mentions she saw animal-orgy mugs with bears, reindeer and penguins humping--she found them funny but didn't dare give those to our parents. No matter--there's just no pleasing them, they still put her down. Might as well have given them porn mugs, or coal, or nothing.
• Navaho with businessmen as sheep: probably not from 'sheeple'--this was 1985, and that's very much a 21st Century word. But I'd studied some Navaho in my teens, and (as all newbies do) I noticed the similarity of diné ('people') and dibé ('sheep'). Or maybe the "ba" in MBA--I was working near the Stanford Business School at the time, so I did see herds of... them. I was not impressed.
• Board of Directors: how it ought to be, if not how it is. Sigh!
• Cottage where all the creatures of the Zodiac live: the premise of the well-known manga Fruits Basket, but as with sheeple, my dream got there first.
• Picture-story changes with the direction you read: recurring dream-theme of mine, over decades. Examples: Tardis Gazebo, Hell Cafe.
• ACTIONS:
  1. Well, draw them! Beyond that, I don't know. I don't see how to make them come true. Sigh.
  2. Never, ever listen to my parents? But I already knew that.

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