The Camel Jumper

 A funny thing happened.  One of the pictures I posted yesterday on my 1933 page was of a young Afghani lad struggling to hold a camel's halter.  He's so small, and the camel so big, there's a man just laughing out loud at the sight, and the kid is laughing too.  

I found this picture in the usual way, just searching for photos on Google using the date in 1933.  The next day I was looking at the photo and the words camel jumper popped into my mind.  I knew what this was- I had a dream once about a young boy who I called the Camel Jumper. 

So I looked for my record of that dream, sure enough found it.  I'm not terribly surprised that the photo reminded me of the dream subconsciously (I was searching for what to call the kid in the photo, and came up with two names that were like camel jumper:  camel minder and camel driver) What surprises me is how I had that strange dream to begin with.  I wonder if I may have seen the photo when I was a kid or something?  Here's the dream, as recorded.  First the picture, then the dream from about 18 years earlier.

01/09/03

The Camel Jumper.

There was a playroom, or just a room with a few toys and nothing else in it.  Some children, very young children, were in it.  A boy wanted to cross this room, but at times the location would change to that of a high desert encampment.

The light in this desert location was thin and low, and it may have been cold.  A large group of robed desert people were there, and the time was long ago.  As the small boy crossed the playroom, he would appear in the midst of this circle of desert people.

He was able to save his life by doing some trick, but it was as if he would not keep these somewhat hostile people confused long enough for him to cross the room.  Fortunately, there was an even younger (or just smaller) boy in the room with him who was also travelling back to this desert.  (The change from location to location was a long, grainy fade rather than an abrupt switch.  The desert location was yellowish, and the fade would begin with this yellowish grainyness appearing in the room)

The smaller boy wasn't as far across the room, but he had a better trick.  He had some sort of a wooden contraption- sort of crutch-shaped, but with a dog-leg bend in it.  It was apparently part of the gear used to hold cargo on the backs of camels.  The smaller boy would use this stick to vault, or turn a sumersault in the air, in the midst of the circle of desert people.

It amazed them, and the boy gained their favor by turning exactly 27 perfect sumersaults altogether.  He was known as the cameljumper.

 So... there it is.  I'm certainly not clever enough to come up with a story like that one just by looking at a photograph, and you'll have to admit that some of the details fit remarkably well together.  I'm fairly well able to understand what the dream meant to me personally.  Well, just one of those coincidences.