Strike a Pose

Thanksgiving night, November 27, '08

I was on a Civil War battlefied, where a skirmish had just ended. Confederate General Robert E. Lee was posing for a photographer; Lee had his arm around a life-size cardboard cutout of Union General Grant. The photographer had the full 19th-century setup: the big, bulky camera, a wooden tripod, etc. I approached General Lee and said, "While we're at it, you should have your picture taken with General ___ [who is down the hill from us]." Lee said, "That's a good idea."

*****

I wish I could remember the other general that I mentioned to Lee, but I can't. I should keep a pad of paper next to the bedside table.

This dream may have been influenced by the three different desserts that I ate at Thanksgiving dinner, but a few other things filtered in. First of all, we had supper at our neighbors' house, and we were joined by a full-size cardboard cutout of President-elect Barack Obama. Aside from that, my wife and I were recently rearranging some of our bookshelves, and she commented on the number of Civil War books that we own. In fact, I had a pretty terrifying dream a few weeks ago that I was a Confederate soldier in the midst of battle, surrounded by Union forces on both sides. I was cognizant of the fact that I was shooting and killing people indiscriminately -- not because I had any beef with them as individuals, but simply because I was trying to survive. Pretty disturbing stuff.

Finally, a few weeks ago I was reading a book by Brian Lamb of C-Span called "Life Stories." It's a collection of interviews from his "Book Notes" program, in which he interviewed authors who had written biographies of famous Americans. The point is to whet one's appetite to seek out the full-length bios and learn more about these fascinating people. Anyway, I learned that while General Lee was a man of average height, say, 5'10, he had tiny feet. His boots were size 4, which equates to a modern size 6. Mabye that bit of trivia mixed with the cardboard cutout of Obama to make this dream. How odd.