When I learned he owned the heart of Africa

Through dreams, we learn interesting things about each other that go beyond what we already know. I was once staying in the Manhattan apartment of a friend from whom I was drifting apart. His world was one of money and society, and my interests were now worlds removed. He had never volunteered a dream to me. 

     That night, I dreamed that he owned a vast area in the heart of Africa. This was not the Africa of Kurtz, in Conrad's Heart of Darkness. It was a realm of primal, surging life. I was thrilled by the profusion of colors and wildlife and the presence of indigenous people who lived close to the Earth and close to the dreaming. I carried from the dream the idea that there was far more to my friend, in his larger self, than he allowed to show, and that it would come through when he was ready.
     I chose not to report the dream to him. I simply carried its energy. As we shared coffee, I looked at my friend, in his custom shirt and sleek barbering, with his copies of all the newspapers and his invitations from society ladies and from Capitol Hill, with affection. Our friendship survived, and I saw my friend speaking and acting in more spontaneous, livelier ways.

Image: Henri Rousseau, "The Dream" (1910)