Thanks for your comments, Dawn. About the sea monster... I don't know where it stems, but I think it is spiritually symbolic and somewhat like Tiamat ("a chaos monster, a primordial goddess of the ocean") from Babylonian mythology.

For me, spirit and physical reality are like either side of a coin. There must be or have been sea monsters, and what they mean is something that can swallow you and take you down right out of your landlubbin element!

My first memory of fear was when my mom took me on a boat ride at an amusement park when I was about 3 y.o. A mechanical sea monster would pop up at a certain point in the ride. The first time I saw it (during what I thought was a lovely, peaceful boat ride), I fell to the floor screaming in hysterics and I don't think I stopped (much to the horror of the other patrons) until we returned to shore or at least until the mechanical monster went back down.

I am sooo scared of the ocean. My Dad took my scuba diving off the coast of Cozumel when I was 17. I remember thinking, I am going to die. Not a joke, literal. I couldn't say no to my Dad after he paid for all of it, so I was just going to have to sacrifice myself in the most horrifying way by rolling off the back of the boat and into the sea and then straight into the jaws of the beast of the sea (maybe). But when I opened my eyes and my mask was in place and my regulator was providing oxygen, I totally relaxed and it became one of the most magical moments of my life (gotta be a big dollop of symbolism there)!

I have dreamed of sea monsters and those are my absolute scariest of all dreams. I'm Walking along a dark, dilapidated pier at night that goes out into water that looks like ink. I fall into the water. The shiny black head of a dragon-like sea monster rises out of the water beside me, its huge body underneath and right next to me, its eyes red and intelligent, and with tentacles of flesh like whiskers coming out of by the ears and cheeks (kinda like a Chinese dragon).

So, I think it represents my greatest fear, being plunged back into chaos and losing my individual identity. And the greatest opportunity to overcome my biggest fear. But I so don't wanna!