In the late 1990s, Garry Kasporov often had nightmares about missing his flights. The kind of dreams where you are running late and there is no way possible you are going to make it. Your flight is in 30-minutes and you are still at home, you still have to pack, your passport is in a town 100km away and for some unfathomable reason you are obsessing about wanting to fit a shower in before you leave the house. Utter futility.
Garry consulted with psychologists and astrologists who told him dreams such as these usually meant that we were neglecting responsibilities in our lives; either subconsciously or consciously. The dream, they said, serves to remind us of a promise we have yet to fulfill. Or, being late may also be symbolic of a prevarication, of avoiding confronting a problem head on in the hope that it will go away.
Personally, Garry worried that the dreams were borne out of an anxiety that at any moment he might meet with the pin prick jab of a hitman’s needle and a grizzly end at the hands of some nerve agent or other.
In 2008, Garry announced an intention to run as a candidate in that year’s Russian presidential race, but Vladimir was having none of that.
Losing can persuade you to change what doesn’t need to be changed, and winning can convince you everything is fine even if you are on the brink of disaster. Garry has been living in Croatia since 2014.
Furphy Refreshing Ale
Little Creatures Brewing Company, Geelong, Victoria
ABV: 4.4%
Beergustatory 