Synchronicity is messing with my head...
Main Entry: syn chro nic i ty
Function: noun
Date: circa 1889
1 : the quality or fact of being synchronous
2 : the coincidental occurrence of events and especially psychic events (as similar thoughts in widely separated persons or a mental image of an unexpected event before it happens) that seem related but are not explained by conventional mechanisms of causality -- used especially in the psychology of C. G. Jung
We've all experienced this at some point or another (I assume). I get it most often with words--I'll see a new word or a name somewhere and then hear it several times over the next few days. But lately, it's been getting weirder...
Last week, I was cleaning the cats' litter boxes and, when I unfolded some newspaper, I saw an ad for Old School, the movie with Luke Wilson, Will Ferrel and Vince Vaughn. The ad had pictures of their faces on a brown, flag motif background with a row of beer bottles (vaguely reminiscent of a skyline) underneath the pictures. The tag line: “Partying was born in the frats”. There was something about it that looked vaguely familiar and I assumed it was a parody of another ad, but couldn't remember which. A couple of minutes later, I picked up one of the litter boxes and underneath the litter box is an ad for Gangs of New York, with the faces of the 3 leads on a brown, flag motif background and the New York skyline underneath their pictures (vaguely reminiscent of a row of bottles in silhouette). The tag line for the film... "America was born in the streets"
Now, admittedly, I was remembering that ad when I saw the Old School ad, but it seems a strange coincidence that I found the original ad just a few minutes later, underneath something I had to move in order to complete the cleaning that had led to me seeing the Old School ad in the first place. (God, what an ugly sentence.)
This weekend we watched Frailty (with Bill Paxton, Matthew McConaughey and Powers Boothe)--a pretty decent thriller about a guy that thinks he can see demons. There are several scenes that take place in a rose garden, ostensibly in Texas, where the movie's set. After the movie, we were watching a short "making of" featurette on the DVD and it mentioned that the rose garden scenes were filmed at the Huntington Library & Botanical Gardens in Pasadena. The strange thing here is that, despite living a half-hour away, we've never been to the Huntington Library & Botanical Gardens, but were going there the next day (to help a friend who was playing Queen Elizabeth for part of an Elizabethan festival at the Gardens that day, though that has nothing to do with synchronicity. Yet.)
And then, that very next day, we're at the Gardens. And I'm watching the Queen Elizabeth scenes where they're arguing about Catholicism and Protestantism. Liz has a famous line that goes "There is only one Jesus Christ. The rest is dispute over trifles." After the scene, I go off to sit on the grass while they finish up their part of the festival and read my book. Not five minutes into it, I come across the line "He remembered Elizabeth's words, uttered in his hearing only a week ago: 'There is only one Jesus Christ, Dr. Dee. The rest is dispute over trifles."
As I mentioned, synchronicity is messing with my head.
Main Entry: syn chro nic i ty
Function: noun
Date: circa 1889
1 : the quality or fact of being synchronous
2 : the coincidental occurrence of events and especially psychic events (as similar thoughts in widely separated persons or a mental image of an unexpected event before it happens) that seem related but are not explained by conventional mechanisms of causality -- used especially in the psychology of C. G. Jung
We've all experienced this at some point or another (I assume). I get it most often with words--I'll see a new word or a name somewhere and then hear it several times over the next few days. But lately, it's been getting weirder...
Last week, I was cleaning the cats' litter boxes and, when I unfolded some newspaper, I saw an ad for Old School, the movie with Luke Wilson, Will Ferrel and Vince Vaughn. The ad had pictures of their faces on a brown, flag motif background with a row of beer bottles (vaguely reminiscent of a skyline) underneath the pictures. The tag line: “Partying was born in the frats”. There was something about it that looked vaguely familiar and I assumed it was a parody of another ad, but couldn't remember which. A couple of minutes later, I picked up one of the litter boxes and underneath the litter box is an ad for Gangs of New York, with the faces of the 3 leads on a brown, flag motif background and the New York skyline underneath their pictures (vaguely reminiscent of a row of bottles in silhouette). The tag line for the film... "America was born in the streets"
Now, admittedly, I was remembering that ad when I saw the Old School ad, but it seems a strange coincidence that I found the original ad just a few minutes later, underneath something I had to move in order to complete the cleaning that had led to me seeing the Old School ad in the first place. (God, what an ugly sentence.)
This weekend we watched Frailty (with Bill Paxton, Matthew McConaughey and Powers Boothe)--a pretty decent thriller about a guy that thinks he can see demons. There are several scenes that take place in a rose garden, ostensibly in Texas, where the movie's set. After the movie, we were watching a short "making of" featurette on the DVD and it mentioned that the rose garden scenes were filmed at the Huntington Library & Botanical Gardens in Pasadena. The strange thing here is that, despite living a half-hour away, we've never been to the Huntington Library & Botanical Gardens, but were going there the next day (to help a friend who was playing Queen Elizabeth for part of an Elizabethan festival at the Gardens that day, though that has nothing to do with synchronicity. Yet.)
And then, that very next day, we're at the Gardens. And I'm watching the Queen Elizabeth scenes where they're arguing about Catholicism and Protestantism. Liz has a famous line that goes "There is only one Jesus Christ. The rest is dispute over trifles." After the scene, I go off to sit on the grass while they finish up their part of the festival and read my book. Not five minutes into it, I come across the line "He remembered Elizabeth's words, uttered in his hearing only a week ago: 'There is only one Jesus Christ, Dr. Dee. The rest is dispute over trifles."
As I mentioned, synchronicity is messing with my head.
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