INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

I've been dreaming a lot lately. Usually early in the morning, just before it is time to get up. I am glad to awake, because the dream is not a happy one. It always has a common theme, and that is LOST. I wish I knew what that meant. I have a copy of Freud on that subject (if I could find it) but I no longer have much faith in Freud. He seems like a charlatan to me now.

In my dreams I am lost in Cincinnati, where I was born and raised. I want to find my way downtown, where presumably I would be able to find friends or find my way to where I belong. At first I find myself in some ubiquitous neighborhood and I ask the way "downtown" from people on the street, village idiots all. They have never heard of Fountain Square, which to me is the heart of Cincinnati. It was a huge square, with a bronze fountain of vaguely Grecian style- arms spread out and water flowing down from both of the statue's hands. Parked in the square are tens of city buses, each in their cubby, showing their routes. It is the city's transportation hub. How could these people not know of it? Could it be gone?

But I know another Cincinnati landmark, which I can see in the distance--the Carew Tower. This art deco building was the heart of sophistication in the Queen City. I try to walk in that direction, but I never seem to get any closer. All the streets I choose to walk on seem to peter out, or go into the country. In the last dream I was in some cavernous unfinished basements, round and round. I don't think I will ever get to Fountain Square, or the Netherland Plaza, or that happy little hamburger restaurant, quaintly named the "Purple Cow". When I wake I am very unhappy. Why do I want to go there in the first place?

Is Cincinnati still there? Someone please tell me.