Skunk Dreams?

I can honestly say that I judged this reading before I even began it. I was almost positive that I would not like this; but in fact, it was actually very intriguing. I may not have entirely understood the basis of the story, but I got the main point.

It started with Edrich talking about an experience where a skunk decided to fall asleep on her. I had no idea where this was headed. Once she began talking about how we don't know about the dreams of other species, let alone our own, I started to see the real meaning behind this story. Dreams. She writes that "If dreams are an acutal dimension, as some assert, then the usual rules of life by which we abide to not apply." I thought that this made a lot of sense and it started to explain the story.

I think the main purpose of this story was to show that not only in real life, but also in our dreams, that we have obstacles. She has the same obstacle throughout the story; the fence. She could see everything past the fence; the trees, the animals, and the landscape. She realizes that this place isn't a sanctuary for the animals, but it's rather a hunting ground.

In the end of the story, she finds a way to overcome this obstacle and finally go past the fence that she had been longing to do. She desired doing this and therefore was willing to do whatever it took to do so. She writes "the obstacles that we overcome define us. We are composed of hurdles we set up to pace our headlong needs, to control our desires, or against which to measure our growth. This right here, to me, sums up the entire story. She wanted to go beyond the fence and see what else there was from the beginning, and the more she wanted to do so, she had to be willing to overcome her obstacle; the fence.