Spooooooooky

[michelel72]

Over the past month or so, I've experienced a sudden rash of coincidences -- reading an uncommon word and then hearing it from the television not ten minutes later; starting a search for a legal copy of a song I really like and then hearing it on the radio for the first time in at least five years. That sort of thing. I didn't pay particular attention to keeping track of specific incidents of coincidence**, but the general trend was disconcerting.

The other day at work, ninjamonkey73 was chatting with The Ladies and mentioned "Take This Job and Shove It". I overheard only that part and my brain started trying to sing that song, but the first tune it came up with was actually "These Boots Are Made for Walking".*** I shared this with the others and we were all amused. That very evening, as I drove home, I was startled to hear MIKE-FM play ... "Take This Job and Shove It" by Johnny Paycheck. I haven't heard that song since high school, at least!

It seems like a system collapse, as if we're all part of some sort of information system that's collapsing (or climaxing****), like something in some story I read once, but all I can come up with is The Matrix, which isn't right ....


** I think if I ever really get anywhere with The Jonathan Chronicles, I'll put in a band named Incidents of Coincidence, or have that be the name of one of their albums ...
*** and one of the songs on that album will be a mash-up of these two songs.
**** As in nearing some mystical ideal/pinnacle, you sicko.

Comments

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

Enquiring minds want to know.... what was *?

;-P

[michelel72.livejournal.com]

* was skipped in favor of ** for the sole original footnote in order to avoid any confusion with my non-richtext usage of the * character to indicate bolding, and it was never restored when *** and **** wormed their way in by the end.

Which isn't very interesting. I'd better work up a racier story!

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

I will frequently hear a song in my head and then turn on the radio to find it playing.

Synchronicity

[zoward.livejournal.com]

The formal term for it is synchronicity, a fact that makes listening to the old Police album of the same name even more interesting (listen to the lyrics for Synchronicity I and they'll make more sense in this context). It was quantified by Carl Jung as a term for the theory that the universe aligns itself with coincidences, a fact that flies in the face of causality. It's the kind of thing that feels right, even though it doesn't make sense.