I told a policeman in Grand Central Station Dan Gregory's address. He said it was only eight blocks away, and that I couldn't get lost, since that part of the city was as simple as a checkerboard. The Great Depression was going on, so that the station and the streets teemed with homeless people, just as they do today. The newspapers were full of stories of worker layoffs and farm forclosures and bank failures, just as they are today. All that has changed, in my opinion, is that, thanks to television, we can hide a Great Depression. We may even be hiding a Third World War."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Bluebeard
I read this yesterday. The book was published for the first time in 1987. I was awe struck at how relevant it is. Then, this morning on the way to work, I was thinking about synchronicity and, as I was getting on the uptown B train, a man with a deep blue (and I'm talking blue blue ocean blue) goatee brushed past me. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to raise the book and show him the cover...
I often experience synchronicity with the books I read. Another example was when I was driving across country last year and reading a book about train riders and vagabonds called HOBO. The night before I was to leave Florida and drive west, I went to the beach for a sunset drum circle. At the drum circle, some shirtless hippy fella with strawberry blond dreads and wooden jewelry kept screaming about the Rainbow Gathering:
"Who wants to go to the Rainbow Gathering with me!? Who has a car!? Let's all go together!"
It was to start the next night in Ocala. I was precisely at the chapter in the HOBO book where an old, weathered tramp leaves his young traveling buddies to head to Ocala for the Rainbow Gathering. I took it as a sign. I might even have offered that silly hippie a ride if he hadn't been so beligerently wasted by the end of the night.
And so I went. Once there, I met a clown--train riders often become clowns and create dusty circuses of impromptu ramshackle glee--who spoke in a jargon utilized prominently in the book. It was amazing.
I have encountered more instances of this lately. Maybe it's a sign of the times; a symptom of the coagulation of the global consciousness. And it's not even specific to books. How many times have you put your mp3 player on shuffle and found that it played songs that related directly to a person you were thinking about? Or you would think that you want to hear a certain song and it would magically come on?
My inner-Hippie is blathering right now:
"Electrical Impulses man! It's all energy transfer! The same impulses in your brain are reaching out and effecting your environment! If you could learn to chanel that power, you could influence all sort of things!"
Chanel your inner hippie for me. Leave some comments of examples of synchronicity in your life. I'd love to hear about other people's experiences with these strange occurrences.
4 comments:
as i told a non-friend recently, the circles that i run in seem to intersect at the weirdest places. *i'm not even going to explain the non-friend comment...i don't have the energy. but it seems inauthentic to change the word to "friend" or "acquaintance."
the point: i know that there's supposed to be 6 degrees, but for lauren, it's like 2 degrees, and it's always the routes i least expect.
and then i'll have a conversation with someone about something, and then someone will send me an email about it, and then it's the thing i dream and write about.
but i'm down with the zeitgeist. i know that it's not novel for these things to all happen at the same time. that's where the revolution starts...as a whisper...
hobo rules. as does bluebeard. what's the other name of that book? i've taken to naming some things twice, because when i grow up i want to be a feminist combo of hunter and vonnegut. and i wanna learn to rhyme like you do, with the ebb and flow of the tides...
so i sit. and i wait. and tomorrow will bring something new.
and until then, i sit here with you.
Mine are way too numerous to recount, but I experience them daily. I used to experience them regularly with my mom - and now experience them more often, not surprisingly, with Luis.
I'll be thinking of a song and within two minutes, Luis will start humming it or vice versa and I start singing it. (This I used to do with my mom all the time. I think it happens every now and again over the phone even.)
I also find, to comment on the energy subject, that when my mind, body, soul is clear and buzzing with its own regenerating energy, I am aghast at how the energy of the universe falls into place for me and those who are with me. For instance, the MTA. There are times when I have left my house with only the absolute minimum amount of time to get to my destination. When all is well in the world of Janelle, the train slides up the moment I enter the turnstile and leaves once I board only to connect immediately to my express train at the next stop. And I just smile.
I also laugh at my auditions: when I really really really want the job, there is no way I'll get it; when I could care less, they hire me. Happens EVERY time.
J
Heh, found you today Googling for "Kurt Vonnegut Synchronicity" ... you can check out my blog if you're interested in these kinds of strange coincidences (although I'm just getting started and it'll be awhile before they're all written up).
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