Last night I dreamed about lots of things. I dreamed about massive sharks and crocodiles in Venice (probably something to do with reading Batman and Green Lantern before I went to bed: one involved Killer Croc, the other a huge mutated shark). I dreamed about being stranded on a spaceship when my own small craft went missing, and us all just drifting through space (and that is quite possibly a Galactica thing. Disappointingly, in the future, commercial space liners will look like a cross between a shopping mall and an airport duty free lounge). I dreamed about Doctors 5, 6 and 10, concurrent or consecutive, and water, and a city.

But I also dreamed about a hare. I was driving (I can drive, y'know, sort of. No license. But I get the principle), when I saw a hare obviously injured in the road in front of me. I stopped the car, to the irritation of the people following me, picked it up gently - it was in a very bad way - and left it on my lap as I drove away. Curiously, I drive badly in my dreams - uncertainly at least - just like I do in life. The thing could barely move, there was only the slightest flutter to register it was somehow still going. So I started driving to the nearest animal hospital (we've two on Guernsey), but as I drove the hare seemed to get better and better, and by the time we arrived it was happilly hopping around the car. I stopped outside the hospital, and let it out, and it ran off into the forest next door.

The fact it happened that way around is interesting in its own right, as traditional dream logic would suggest things getting increasingly worse for no reason. And the three words in my head when I awoke were: Osatara, Eostre and Easter. Obviously all from the same root, and it reminded me of my favourite Easter story. I've been doing a Wiki-unt, and haven't been able to determine if it's "real" myth or "fake" myth, but I've always been fond of it.

It all starts with the Germanic goddess Eostre, who's all about fertility, flowers and fluffy animals. One day she is walking (do goddesses walk? Glide? Survey?) through a field when she finds a little baby bird with broken wings. In true divine style, she doesn't do anything like y'know fix the wings - instead, she turns him into her patron animal, a spring hare, which goes happily hopping into the woodland. The only problem is - it still lays eggs! And that's the origin of the Easter Bunny.

Cute isn't it? Has anyone else heard this story? My dad is an author, so it's possible he made it up for us as kids. I wonder if there is some divine bureacracy, governing exactly how the gods can interfere in mortal life - perhaps actually mending the problem is forbidden, so Eostre has to think outside the box for a solution? It'd certainly rationalise some of the dafter outings in the Metamorphoses.

And all for saving (sort of) a dream rabbit which could heal itself, I've woken up in rather a good mood.

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