
Photo by aturkus
In The Matrix, Neo experiences some synchronicities, coincidences that are just so weird, so ironic, so impeccably timed, that despite his best efforts he can’t pass them off as being purely random.
A black cat walks by him, and then in a deja vu, another cat walks by, making movements that are absolutely identical to the first one. He gets an anonymous message on his computer saying “follow the white rabbit,” and then a few minutes later someone is standing at his door with a tattoo of a white rabbit on her shoulder.
Neo has a feeling that these synchronicities mean something, but he can’t put his finger on it. To the people who have already been enlightened, it’s perfectly obvious that they mean something. They’re signs from the universe guiding him, showing him the path he’s meant to follow according to the grand design.
Sometimes I can’t shake the feeling that the real world works the same way.
Have you ever been thinking about someone, when suddenly the phone rang and you just knew it was them? Or have you ever had a song stuck in your head, when suddenly you heard it on the radio?
To be sure, a good number of strange coincidences are bound to happen just by chance. There are only a finite number of people, places, and things out there, so every once in a while two things will just randomly be in sync.
But sometimes so many unlikely things all happen at the same time, that it seems to be beyond chance. Let me tell you about a few recent examples in my life.
Bracelets for a Complaint Free World
On February 19th, my boss called me into his office, closed the door, and asked me “What do you think this is about?”
The answer was that I thought I was being fired for my attitude problem (long story short: I hate my job). But of course I wasn’t going to say that. Like when a cop asks you if you know why they pulled you over, you don’t say “Oh, that’s because I’m wanted in 48 states. You must have found the gun I threw into the river behind Fat Tony’s safe house two miles down the road.”
It’s a good thing I didn’t say anything, because it turned out that I was getting a bonus because of my “attitude and enthusiasm.” I have no idea where that came from, but it was so out of place I could barely contain my laughter. I took it as a sign that I got lucky this time, but I really needed to do something to fix my attitude ASAP, before it caught up with me.
I had heard about these purple complaint bracelets that Rev. Will Bowen was using to get people to go for 21 days without complaining. I had ordered some bracelets five months before, but I was still waiting. I knew they were really backed up, but were my bracelets eventually going to arrive, or had my order been lost?
On March 2nd, Pick The Brain announced that they were giving away 15 copies of Will Bowen’s book A Complaint Free World. All you had to do was leave a comment on their site that week, and you were entered into the competition. Hmmm, was I supposed to win?
On March 5th, I discovered Clay Collins at The Growing Life. Click on that link–do you notice something about his picture? Yup, he’s wearing one of those purple bracelets. So I left a comment asking him how long he had to wait to get them. To my surprise, he emailed me and offered to send me one of his extra bracelets! Are you kidding me?
On March 9th, I learned that I had won a copy of the book from Pick The Brain.
The message was clear: I really need to stop complaining. I can’t just ignore it anymore.
It Don’t Come Easy for Ringo Starr
On March 24, I wrote a post that briefly mentioned Ringo Starr as an example of someone who is mistakenly believed to have had an easy life.
The next morning, Catherine Lawson left a comment saying she didn’t realize that Ringo had a tough time on his way to the top.
A couple of hours later, as I was coming back from lunch, the last song on the radio was Ringo’s “It Don’t Come Easy.”
That evening, I watched an episode of The Simpsons. It just happened to be the one featuring that song, where Marge paints a portrait of Ringo.
The next morning, the radio had an interview with photographer Nancy Lee Andrews, Ringo’s former fiance.
That’s an awful lot of Ringo! But I don’t know what it means yet. I guess if I see him in real life, I have to follow him. Barring that, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.
Kill Bill and Japan
On April 5th, my friend in Japan called me because I’m going to visit him soon. It was just by chance that he called on that particular day, because we hadn’t spoken in months. One of the things we talked about was whether we were going to make a trip to Tokyo. I had said that I wanted to go, but I didn’t realize it was going to cost $400 to get there. I didn’t mind paying that, but I didn’t want to obligate him and his wife to spend $800 if they didn’t really want to. After some discussion of the pros and cons, we decided that we’re probably going to go to Tokyo.
Right after our call, I went to Blockbuster to rent a movie. It was just by chance, because I don’t rent a lot of movies, and I wasn’t even supposed to be home that weekend.
I went through the new releases and didn’t see anything that seemed especially good. Then I considered action vs. drama, and decided to look through the action section, starting with the As. I got up to the Ks before I found something that caught my eye–Kill Bill. I didn’t know anything about it, other than it being a Quentin Tarantino movie, but I decided on it instantly.
I had no idea that half the movie was set in Japan! And I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie set in Japan before. Even the version of Godzilla I saw was set in New York.
In the movie, Uma Thurman travels from the U.S. to Okinawa, and stays there for a month. Then, she goes off to kill Lucy Liu, the head of the Japanese crime world, who just happens to be located in…come on, you know this…Tokyo.
That settled it. I’m definitely going to Tokyo. I just don’t know why…yet.
The Karate Kid and Moving from New Jersey
Now that I think about it, I experienced another location-related synchronicity from a movie years ago. I was living in New Jersey, and I liked the area OK, but I didn’t like the career options that were available there, especially during the dot bomb days. My sister was trying to convince me to move to L.A. (where she lived) so I could do something more creative.
When we went to the beach that summer, she brought a movie for us to watch, The Karate Kid. Unbeknownst to her at the time, Daniel moves from New Jersey to L.A. before learning the secrets of karate from Mr. Miyagi. Yeah universe, real subtle. I didn’t move to L.A., but I did move to Virginia (which is where I got my black belt many years ago). Still working on doing something more creative, though.
Is This For Real?
Bear in mind that I’m not trying to convince you that any of this is more than coincidence. I’m just sharing some things that have happened to me, and suggesting that this might be worth thinking about. I do experience a lot of synchronicities, and they seem to happen more often the more I accept that they might mean something.
Could it all be in my head? Of course. But the more I think about it, the more I find it possible or even likely that some force is out there saying “Take the hint, moron” every time a sign appears. I really wouldn’t be surprised if I suddenly realized that life is just a dream, and everything happens because it’s supposed to happen.
What about you? Do you find that things happen to you that seem like they could be not just coincidence, but signs from the universe?