Dream 1: Mickey Mouse is Real (from Hagenart's Five Favorite Dreams)

This dream occurred during a family party at my parents' home. I believe I was living at home at the time, in 1991. I had to use the bathroom, and went downstairs to use the restroom in the basement. My nephews were watching TV and trying to pull the arms off a stuffed gorilla which I'd given to my mother for Christmas a few years previously. I went into the bathroom, and discovered that whichever nephew had previously used it had not flushed the toilet. Sharply annoyed, I flushed the toilet and imagined dropping the nephew head-first into the bowl. As I used the bathroom, a plastic sword emerged from under the bathroom door.
"Who's that?" I said. Then I heard a thud like someone's forehead hitting the door, and the sword slid free, a foot or so forward from the door. A moment later, a tiny hand reached under the door jamb, trying to reach the sword, unsuccessfully. I flushed the toilet and grabbed the sword, gently poking at the tiny hand with its tip. The hand retracted with a squawk.

When I emerged from the bathroom with the sword in hand, no nephew was in sight. I walked down the hall to the family room, where all three nephews were watching TV. "Whose sword is this?" I asked. None of them replied. I put the sword on the table at the end of the room and walked back down the hall to my bedroom. It occurred to me as I walked down the hall that the sword belonged to Mickey Mouse. I laid down on my bed and realized that it had been a long time since I had taken a moment to sit or lay down and do nothing. It had been days, maybe weeks, maybe months. It felt good to lay on the bed and do nothing and not think about what I should be doing. At that moment it occurred to me that Mickey Mouse had given the sword to me. It was getting dark outside, but I did not turn out the light. The room became dim, and at that moment I realized that Mickey Mouse was as real as I myself was. I realized that all the characters in all the cartoons were real. I felt that I myself was a cartoon. This realization gave me profound peace.

I eventually walked back down the hall and saw the nephews running up the stairs. My sister was calling for them get in the car. I looked for the sword on the table but someone had taken it. I assumed one of my nephews had grabbed it, but when I went upstairs and asked my sister about the plastic sword she furrowed her brow and looked confused. "I don't think so," she said. "I don't know."

That night I dreamt that had an enormously long right leg and that my right foot had giant wheels like a tractor and I skated everywhere on it. The tall witch on the tricycle could not prevail upon me and everything I touched turned to plastic.

Interpretation:
The nephews symbolize family fertility, nature, and also filth and bugs. The plastic sword represents the sterile beauty of commercialism. I claimed the sword as a mission to protect the world from all monsters that can be killed or scared off by dull-edged weapons. The bathroom indicates my tower, my refuge of strength and security. The toilet was not flushed because nature is unreliable and has terrible manners. Mickey Mouse is real. My intense vision-like moment of crystal realization symbolizes what a great idea might feel like to a genius like Einstein or Archimedes. The plastic sword's disappearance indicates that I have sneaky nephews. The giant right foot in my dream symbolizes cool ideas that may someday be possible with advances in prosthetic technology.