Dear Molly,

I had to race one-hundred yards down a steep hill
on a warm day. My opponent was a blond teenage
boy. We raced, I won, and everyone cheered. Then
came the prize. A laurel wreath was placed on my
head and I was crowned Ruler of Jamaica. It was
surprising, but it felt natural at the same time. I
already had a few ideas about how to improve my
country's economy: regulate bauxite production,
export rare fruits, and figure out how to close the
open wounds of colonization.

It was a great dream and it foretold a great morning.
As with most dreams, the details were weird but not
too hard to decode. Unlike most dreams, the method
of wish-fulfillment was obvious.

Here it is: (maybe). The race represents cause-and-
effect logic. I won the contest, and so I became
the Ruler of Jamaica, and this seemed like a very
obvious chain of events.

Like I said, I woke up in a really good mood. It was
the same mood I get into after I have a dream in
which I can fly or breathe underwater.

It is so rare to be rewarded for one's efforts in any
race--school, work, friendship-- that one naturally gets
to feeling misunderstood, or, at worst, completely
opaque to those who should be cheering loudest. After
a while, the fact of going unrecognized begins to
affect one's performance.

I'm still thinking of a solution to this problem.

From,
Cassidy

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