Plate of Shrimp

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7676799656232835832.post-64858443142763675672008-03-29T12:40:00.000-07:002008-04-01T18:18:12.969-07:00Plate of ShrimpLast time, I mentioned that strange little synchronicities were happening in my life that I could no longer ignore and had to acknowledge. When I was studying religion in college, which was years later, I mentioned these experiences to my favorite professor, and, while not totally discrediting them, he explained that our brains are designed to look for and find patterns. I can understand this but it makes it sound as if I was forcing the patterns rather than just noticing uncanny connections. My experiences usually involved a thought in my head manifesting itself in reality, like my friend finishing a song I was singing in my head. I can see my professor's point in instances of starting to like a song and then hearing it everywhere I go such as on the car radio or in department stores. The song was now in my consciousness so I was able to recognize it. (But for me this leads to the deeper philosophical question of whether the song existed before it entered my consciousness, more on that later.) But my little coincidences had a much greater depth. For example, in 1989 I saw the early Wayan's brother comedy, I'm Gonna Git You, Sucka! ( I highly recommend it). In the film, a character named Kung-Fu Joe starts whippin' ass and the song "Kung-Fu Fighting" by Carl Douglas plays. I had to get my hands on that song. This was long before the 70s revival of the 1990s and I went on many fruitless searches in every store that sold music. One day, I'm in a Wherehouse and I hear a song playing that I instantly liked, "Magic" by the band Pilot. I rushed to the counter where they had the "Now Playing" display and saw a CD called Super Hits of the 70s: Have a Nice Day Volume 14. I remember thinking "I like this song, but a whole CD of 70s pop? Could it be any good?" I looked at the song list and the number one track was "Kung-Fu Fighting." I bought it immediately. I enjoyed every song on that volume and developed a love for bad 70s pop ballads and novelty songs. I now own almost all of the 24 volume series. It was little incidences like this that began to occur regularly in my life. A minor dalliance leading to a great discovery. Why did I like that song? Why was that CD playing? Why does it have the song I've been scouring music stores for? I had to try to answer these questions. In the course of preparing this piece, I was reminded of a movie from my youth. We watched Repo Man because the main character was a punk rocker but I was instantly mesmerized by the old burnout, Miller. We used to quote lines from the movie and there was one that I used to love (my brother can attest to it) because I thought it was funny, not because I thought it contained some philosophical truth. To hear it now is kind of scary as it succinctly captures my current life philosophy. Did I unconsciously base my entire way of thinking on this? Like I said, my life is filled with complex synchronicities like a funny teenage obsession turning into the blueprint for a philosophy later in life. Enjoy. "A lot of people don't realize what's really going on. They view life as a bunch of unconnected incidences and things. They don't realize that there's this like... lattice of coincidence that lays on top of everything. I'll give you an example, show you what I mean. Suppose you're thinking about a plate of shrimp. Suddenly somebody will say like plate...or shrimp...or plate of shrimp. Out of the blue, no explanation. No point in looking for one either. It's all part of a cosmic unconsciousness." Miller Repo Man, 1984 P.S. My brother and I to this day still say "shrimp...or plate of shrimp" when an odd coincidence occurs that we both acknowledge.cynicalidealisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16595745944791517491noreply@blogger.com