What's eating you?

Dreams are funny things.
Over the years I have read the odd book or two (some of them VERY odd) about 'unlocking the meanings ' of dreams.
It's not that I am all hocus-pocus about stuff.
I am one of those mortals who tends to attribute extraordinary occurrence to ordinary explanation.
It's just that dreams often catch me unawares, and I am a control person.
Like last night.
Sleeping soundly in a warm and comfortable bed, my mind took a wander to a room that was clearly in a home that suddenly- and rather mysteriously- belonged to me.
This room had a wall of fish tanks. Not one large fish tank, mind you, but a series of fish tanks, all stacked one on top of the other apartment style.
Some were large and deep, with coral displays and rocks and caves, and some were small and shallow with only sand in the bottom.
The entire structure, which by my reckoning was at least 20 feet tall, and 5 feet wide, was being supported by wooden brackets whose struts extended only12 inches from their anchor point and yet the tanks, which could all be accessed at the top, remained in place.
At one point in the dream I turned to a girl, who at the time seemed very familiar but now whose face and name have dissolved, and said " I don't know how long this will last with such little support, I am waiting for it to fall, and when it does nothing will save it"
Mmmmmmmmm.
Well yes.
But moving on.
From there the dream moved to a situation that was so distinctly remarkable and disturbing that it woke me up a mere 5 hours after my head originally hit the pillow, and has me blogging as a kind of bloodletting.
Another woman, all I can tell you was she was Chinese, turned to me and said " We need to rescue two fish from being eaten so we are bringing them here. I think they will die in these tanks, but they were going to die anyway, so a few hours happiness at the end is better than nothing"
Hmmmmmmmm.
Quite.
She then very carefully placed a small guppy like fish into a small tank with a sandy bottom.
It was orange with a fan like tail, and seemed happy enough.
The second animal was not.
In the arms of a man was a 4 foot shark that was struggling for its life.
My eyes turned immediately to the largest tank and I remember thinking " it will eat the other fish" but to my surprise it was placed it in a small and shallow tank. The poor animal struggled to get it's head underwater, and my distressed self turned to the woman who casually announced, "I will strangle it later to put it out of it's misery"
Instantly a larger shark appeared alongside our doomed fish friend and started eating it alive.
There was nowhere for it to go in this small and shallow tank and I watched it die a horrendous death. It's attacker was a deep sea Frilled shark.
I know this because I saw its red gills and recognised its face from the video on you-tube that documents the agonising death of this prehistoric marvel when it was brought to the surface by Japanese fishermen and had it's insides expand and explode in the pressure less shallow water.
That video has always haunted me.
I hate cruelty.
Now, if you have stayed with me thus far, you will have noted that a larger fish existed in a smaller tank that could not support the life of one shark, let alone two.
But this was a dream. And dreams are designed to break the laws of metaphysics at the best of times, it's doubtful these are the best of times, especially for that shark.
So what does it mean?
And who is the shark- the dead one- and for that matter who is the Frilled one?
And why was it placed in a situation where it clearly had no opportunity to protect itself, or fight back, or survive?
And is it better to have a few hours happiness just at the end?
Is it enough?
I think not, I aim for happiness everyday, and I usually find it.
But clearly something is going on.
My subconscious self is trying to tell my conscious self something.
Or maybe it was the chocolate and coconut cookies I had just before bed, and my dream was merely the result of an early morning sugar rush coupled with a weekend of Christmas festivities and way too much excitement for a 40 year old.
Either.
Or neither.
I'm just putting it out there.
I shall make a cup of tea now and quietly write a list of all the people I know who would eat someone alive - in the metaphoric sense obviously- and pop it on the fridge.
It's a small tank.
I need to know what I'm up against.