Ginnie – Well the fact that you knew the man/boy seems to indicate this is part of your nature. I need to remind you that - In the world of dreams our most intimate fears and longings are given an exterior life of their own in the form of the people, objects and places of our dream. Therefore our sexual drive may be shown as a person and how we relate to them; something that haunts our memory shown as a ghost or demon. Our feeling of ambition might thus be portrayed as a business person in our dream - our changing emotions as the sea or a river; while the present relationship we have with our ambition or emotions is expressed in the events or plot of the dream.
So I feel you offered love, and that is a very powerful thing – but you didn’t get the response you expected. Then you ran away.
I have to guess what the young man represents, unless you get into him and tell me otherwise. He is probably the outgoing male side of you. I know the feeling of rejecting love, it comes from being confronted by something so painful. For instance I had acne so badly I rejected women because I could not bare anybody to be near me. I thought they would feel sick. But your rejection is one that expresses something else, and if you put into words spitting in your face, what would it be?
Then when you do not return you are faced by death and trash can. In other words, a dead end.
So try facing the boy/man and try a different approach. Try being him and understand his response. Try talking with him. Anything, but do not give up, because you will be giving up on yourself. Perhaps your attempt at love was one put off to easily. After all it is you you are trying to love.
Tony
