The Young/Old Man & The Raven Mural

So here are some ideas I've had lately. One came in a dream when I was sleeping in the spare room because two girls were in my bed and I couldn't adequately stretch out. I had just eaten a bag of "Hickory Sticks" and a "Crispy Crunch."

1) A young man lives in a house with a large tree in the yard. One day, he goes outside with a nailgun and shoots a nail into the tree for no other reason than to shoot something. He laughs about his good aim and returns to his house. The next day he looks out the window and realizes that all the leaves on the tree have turned yellow and are starting to fall off. He also realizes that he's experiencing great pain in his hands and joints. This pain corresponds to that of arthritis. The young man shrugs it off, takes some Asprin, and goes about his day. The next morning, he looks out his window to see the tree has lost all it's leaves and branches are beginning to fall off. The man also notices that his eyesight is becoming dim, and his hair is falling out. Not concerned, the man puts some Rogaine on his bald head, and buys some contact lenses for his feeble, cataract-infested eyes. The next morning, the tree has split in two, and the young man is now an old man who cannot walk without the aid of a cane, cannot see, cannot hear, wrinkles and liver spots adorn his body, cancer has sprung up in many of his internal organs, he has trouble breathing, but he still laughs at his good aim. The next day the old man is dead. The next day, the old man's house crumbles. The next day, the tree is alive again.

2) This is the one that came in a dream. It was of a huge mural painted on the wall of my old public school in Peterborough. A large raven was depicted attempting to peck at a human hand, but a very large, square diamond ring on the finger of the hand was preventing the raven from doing any damage. Instead it was slowly breaking it's beak. A person in the dream told me that "maybe that should be a lesson to me." There are so many ways to interpret it that my head is spinning. I don't know why, but I can't think of it without thinking of George Orwell's 1984, and the symbol of humanity which is a boot stomping on a human face, forever. Why was such an intense image painted on the side of a public/elementary school, unless it's trying to instill some sense of awe or fear into children? Shudder. And yet, it's hopeful at the same time. It all depends on who is the crow, and who the hand belongs to. Does the ring represent wealth? Or a callousness towards outside influences? Perhaps the crow is passion, and we're dulling ourselves to passion through material things. Or perhaps the hand is that of the upper class, and the poor are the crow, vainly attempting to change a rigid class system. I don't remember, but what if the crow was perched on the wrist, or on one of the other fingers? That would suggest that the raven is dependant on the hand or even is a product of the hand. To quote Bill Murray in The Royal Tennenbaums, "How intresting. How bizzare!"

I don't know yet. Noodle on it for a while, I guess.

That's it. Go play in the puddles.