Something about a painting or somewhat?

Hey so my not-the-youngest kid brother was telling me about this wacky painting. Something about a fireman in a museum looking at a painting of a house on fire, if memory serves. As I always do with this sort of thing, I just went ahead and started pulling off the top of my head about what the whole thing is supposed to mean. Since paintings always have some kind of meaning to get out of 'em, right?

Eh, pretty much I told him the whole thing was a metaphor of some guy's memory. See then, the guy in the painting, he's the lad the memory belongs to, and the museum itself is the guy's mind. So he's remembering something all the sudden, which is why he's suddenly present in the museum scene. The painting's gonna be some one memory. So, some firefighter remembering one particular memory about a house on fire.

Ya following me so far? Well why's this guy remembering the fire anyway? If he's in his firefighter gear in the painting, he's probably about to go fighting a fire in real life. But then he remembers another fire from his past. Why's he remember it? Let's say that particular fire is one he failed to rescue someone in, or he got there too late or something, and he knows he can't live with himself if he messes up again.

Or maybe the guy isn't a firefighter at all and he's seeing his own house burn down. He's feeling pretty down, but besides that he's not even registering that it's really happening. So it's like he's looking at it as if it's a painting or something that isn't real. And he's in firefighter gettup since he wishes there's something he coulda done to stop it.

Heh. I can think of stuff pretty quick-a-like on the spot. It's a skill ya need out there in the rough, I tell ya.