I'm confused at the Aquarium; Death always bewilders me so. Eels eat minnows, whales eat eels. So they go. Baleena, a spirit whale, slender, white- bellied, gnaws into a huge whale's gut, on through. Who is she? A whale I knew long ago. Baleena, lean and hungry, swims home--in air-- with us--to wed her human beau. So now I play poker with her husband. Since he loves it so, his wife plays too. Baleena can't grasp bluffing, though. Sonar sees through skin, fin, soul. Whales hold no secrets! While men are o- paque to other men. Blank poker wall. I propose "Why should we all have to play? Baleena shouldn't have to." Hub says "No, No, no! I love poker so my wife must too-- it's the American Way!" Argue to and fro. American Way. Years pass. I think I live alone. But one day I notice my Holy Deck has four cards gone. Hunt. And in the backest back room find Baleena, her man, and the Old Wet Gang, ghosts and spirits all, playing blackjack. Blackjack is the spirits' game.

Notes in the Morning

• Baleena: maybe the Inland Whale, a Redwood Coast legend of a female whale stranded in a mountain lake, who helps others despite her own plight.
• Poker: to win against others, you need opacity--thick skin. Without skin to hide behind, spirits'd find poker pointless.
• Blackjack: to beat the house takes intuition and/or calculation, but it's not leathery-competitive like poker. Spirits might like blackjack!
• ACTION: I see others' secrets but also can't hide my own, so I'm bad at poker. No boundaries. If I gotta gamble, try blackjack instead.

Over the next decade I learned I really couldn't bluff and compete the way American business demands. Even job interviews and salary negotiations were torture for me. Today I think it's not just shyness but a sensory difference. I feel strong empathy--read emotions too well--so zero-sum games like poker hurt to play!

But I could pick investments--because I wasn't fighting others, just supporting stuff I liked. Like blackjack, you play the house--no enemies. I made a fortune that way.

Not poker, blackjack! Baleena turned out to be me.

Afterthought (for Intuitives and Shy, Noncompetitive People)

We don't have to get ahead at work to succeed. Live cheap, save up slowly, and invest it in the market--something you believe in--a specialty you know, or social investing (firms with good labor & consumer relations), or a fund backing firms run by folks you trust (female-led firms, Christian firms, you name it) or even just the market in general. American culture sneers at us for being noncompetitive. Let them sneer.

Get rich slow.

World Dream Bank homepage - Art gallery - New stuff - Introductory sampler, best dreams, best art - On dreamwork - Books
Indexes: Subject - Author - Date - Names - Places - Art media/styles
Titles: A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - IJ - KL - M - NO - PQ - R - Sa-Sk - Sl-Sz - T - UV - WXYZ
Email: wdreamb@yahoo.com - Catalog of art, books, CDs - Behind the Curtain: FAQs, bio, site map - Kindred sites