An actual dream
about a beautiful red snake
I'm on the edge of a precipice and there is a big beautiful iridescent red snake about to slide over the edge. My impulse is to save it to keep it from going over the edge. It is, after all a sentient being. Something in my mind in the dream says if you save it it will bite you.
So I let it slide over the edge to its death. I think it was the wise thing to do. If you truck with snakes you get bitten.
What do you suppose it means?
I am reminded of the story about the camel who came to the edge of the Nile and found a scorpion there who was looking for a ride across. If I give you a ride you might bite me said the camel. But if I did that I would drown said the scorpion. The camel saw the common sense and the scorpion climbed aboard. In the middle of the river the scorpion bit the camel, who began to die and sink under the water. O foolish scorpion the camel cried, why? why? I die, but you die too. Why?
You forget, said the scorpion this is the US Senate.
As Ted Kennedy said, a moderate Republican is a person who, when you are drowning 15 feet from shore will throw you a 12 foot rope.
(In the original the scorpion said, you forget, this is the middle east.)