With one breath, with one flow, you will know...

Synchronicity.

Odd things have been happening lately. Or actually I'm pretty sure they always do, I just have been noticing them more as of late. It seems to cycle like that. Little things that you only notice if you pay attention. Some examples:

1. Yesterday I was driving to lunch, and I was in a bad mood. I don't know why I was in a mood, maybe I was just tired. I flipped through all the radio stations and got either commercials or crap. Which is no surprise for Omaha radio stations. My last stop was the local college radio station which plays about 75% thrash metal and 25% good, cutting edge, listenable (to my tender 42-year-old ears) rock. They were playing those little recorded snippets from movies, which usually means they are about to play a song. I said out loud (I talk to myself all the time. I know it's weird, but at least I know I have an interested audience!) "I can't imagine what song they could possibly play to get me out of my shitty mood." Instantly the group Rage Against the Machine popped into my head. I don't know why, it's not like I'm a huge fan, but I really like a few of their tunes, and for some reason songs like Renegades of Funk and their great cover of Springsteen's Ghost of Tom Joad always put me right. Anyway, 10 seconds later the next song started, and guess what, it was Renegades of Funk! Haven't heard that song on the radio in months, maybe years, but there it was. And you know, it worked; I was happy again. Coincidence? Hmmmm.

2. One day this weekend I was minding my own business, working in the basement. When I am on my own my brain alternates between snippets of music, movie quotes and odd phrases. So the phrase "I'm not an actor, but I play one on tv." popped into my head and rattled around in there for a while. I have no idea why it did, it was totally random. At the time it seemed like kind of a funny phrase. Now today on my way to work I listened to the start of This American Life, and one of the segments was about John Hodgman. And Ira Glass's intro to this segment was: "Act 1: I’m not a tv star but I play one on tv”". Pretty weird, eh?

When I pay attention, I notice that this kind of thing happens all the time. Is it synchronicity? Coincidence? God? Kismet?

The poet Sting describes Synchronicity as...

A connecting principle
Linked to the invisible
Almost imperceptible
Something inexpressible
Science insusceptible
Logic so inflexible
Causally connectable.

But why? Is there somebody watching me, poking me once in a while to see if I'm awake? It's nice to think so, anyway.