Background - I was substituting for a fifth grade class at Potowmack Elementary school and got talking to one of the fifth grade boys. He was reading a rather large, mature looking book and I was curious as to what the story was. So I drifted by him to try and catch a peek at the title. I didn’t recognize it but there was no doubt that this was an adult book. “That’s a pretty high level book you’ve got there” I said with a smile “What’cha readin?”. He was a really cute kid named Scott and he tells me that he likes to read his dad’s books and that Michael Crichton is one of his favorites. He also offers that his mom won’t let him read everything because she’s worried about the subject matter, and then he rolls his eyes at me to indicate that his mom is way over protective. I shook my head in mock agreement. Such a cute kid.
I asked him if he had read Crichton’s book called “Swarm” (the only title I could come up with at the moment). He said “no, my mom wouldn’t let me.” Again with the eye rolling. “How about “Jurassic Park? Didn’t Michael Crichton write Jurassic Park?” He said he hadn’t read that one either and didn’t know if Michael Crichton had written it or not, clearly getting annoyed with my badgering. Dropping his head, he went back to his reading and I resumed my classroom drifing, laughing at myself because I couldn’t remember who wrote Jurassic Park. Now it was bugging me. I was almost sure it was Michael Crichton.
Class ended and I gathered up the little darlings and walked them down to the music room and then, after music, they would head off to P.E. That meant that I had an entire hour to eat my lunch and read my Uncle John’s Bathroom reader, “Uncle John Plunges into the Universe” (Uncle John works real hard on these titles).
S.C.O.U.T.- I pick up where I left off a few days before, on the bottom of page 100, and the very first thing my eyes settle on is...
“Is it true that scientists dug up an oversized “velociraptor” after Steven Spielberg created one for Jurassic Park?
I get that tingle down my spine and continue reading,
“Actually a large raptor was discovered two years before the release of Jurassic Park, but supposedly the all-powerful and all-seeing Spielberg didn’t know it. He just took the raptors that Michael Crichton had used in the book of the same name….
You could have blown me over with a feather. I was glad I had the classroom to myself because I was so stunned I must have looked like I‘d seen a ghost. It felt like I had asked a question and the answer had been express mailed to me. What a strange case of uncanny timing. Was it a premonition? Was it just a coincidence? Did I “attract” the answer to my question, or was it a tug on the shirt from “the powers that be” to remind me that I’m not alone (i.e. just part of a cosmic conversation)?
I’m still working on the answer to this one, but now if I could just get an answer to one of my most pressing questions. It has to do with the winning lottery numbers for this coming Friday…hehehe! Come on Uncle John, help me out here!!
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
What's a scout? Funny, it turned out to be a S.C.O.U.T.!! Clever universe!
To begin, the word scout used as a verb means "to find by seeking, searching or looking". Hmm? How interesting that this word would end up being just the acronym I was looking for while searching for meaning in these "Strange Cases Of Uncanny Timing"! Seek and ye shall find.
The phrase "Strange Case Of Uncanny Timing" is a phrase I strung together to describe what would seem like a mere coincidence but allows for the possibility that there is more meaning to it. While this phrase describes only the event and resists the temptation to interpret its meaning, its a bit long. I decided that a simple acronym would help to shorten it and therefore make it more useful. I sat down with my scrap paper to play around with the first letters and see what I could come up with.
I'm horrible at word puzzles so it was no surprise that I couldn't see my dogs name in the first letters of this phrase until I sat down and pulled each one out and looked at them as a word. When my dogs name appeared on the first try I was stunned. I sat back and laughed at the fact that, just by coincidence, my 7 year old goofy Portuguese Water dogs name was the acronym I had begun trying to construct. Scout was strangely enough a S.C.O.U.T.!
This combined with the definition of the word gave me the tingly feeling that I am being walked down a garden path. I am seeking, searching and looking for meaning in these uncanny connections and, while this excersize seems to raise more questions than it answers, I have no choice but to follow this path. Its an interesting and awe inspiring path so I don't mind, but the question that seems to grow with each turn in the road is "where does this path lead?". The only way to find out is forward!
The phrase "Strange Case Of Uncanny Timing" is a phrase I strung together to describe what would seem like a mere coincidence but allows for the possibility that there is more meaning to it. While this phrase describes only the event and resists the temptation to interpret its meaning, its a bit long. I decided that a simple acronym would help to shorten it and therefore make it more useful. I sat down with my scrap paper to play around with the first letters and see what I could come up with.
I'm horrible at word puzzles so it was no surprise that I couldn't see my dogs name in the first letters of this phrase until I sat down and pulled each one out and looked at them as a word. When my dogs name appeared on the first try I was stunned. I sat back and laughed at the fact that, just by coincidence, my 7 year old goofy Portuguese Water dogs name was the acronym I had begun trying to construct. Scout was strangely enough a S.C.O.U.T.!
This combined with the definition of the word gave me the tingly feeling that I am being walked down a garden path. I am seeking, searching and looking for meaning in these uncanny connections and, while this excersize seems to raise more questions than it answers, I have no choice but to follow this path. Its an interesting and awe inspiring path so I don't mind, but the question that seems to grow with each turn in the road is "where does this path lead?". The only way to find out is forward!
Sunday, November 14, 2010
March 15, 2010 - Predawn Vertical Insertion
Background - First of all, get your mind out of the gutter. This has nothing to do with that! Matt, my youngest son, and I have a before bedtime conversation about an extended family member who was a former military special forces guy. Matt and my husband had come back from a small family reunion weekend in Disney where Matt had met this guy. He had a lot of questions about this guys service, most of which I couldn’t answer. All I could tell him was that I knew he was involved in the Grenada conflict under President Reagan, which triggered a whole host of new questions I couldn’t answer. He wanted to know if Grenada had been a war? and what the conflict had been about? I told him that I didn’t think that it was called a “war”. The term “war” was very specific and required Congress to actually declare war before it could officially be termed that. Finally, I told him that I wasn’t sure about any of this and that we would have to Google it tomorrow! Right now its time to read a little and then get to sleep. I kissed him goodnight and headed for my own book and bed.
S.C.O.U.T.- Moments later, Matt comes rushing into my bedroom with his “Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader, 10th anniversary edition“, pg. 303, opened to the section he had begun reading. If your familiar with these books you know that each page has a bottom crawling, random little tid-bit that will, more often than not, get you to say “wow!”. Matt definitely said “wow!” that night because the bottom crawler stated that
“Double speak: The U.S. government called the invasion of Grenada a “predawn vertical insertion”.
This is the only place in the 500 page book that Grenada is mentioned and Matt had opened right to it. What uncanny timing that it should appear just then and there, answering at least one of his questions (and like I said, it had nothing to do with that other thing you were thinking. Now don‘t you feel silly?!)!
Was it a coincidence? Did Matt “attract” the word Grenada to himself? Had God, the universe and the “powers that be” sent an answer to one of his questions? Or perhaps they were just getting in on the conversation, i.e. they‘re always listening and responding to our lives? Did Matthew become “entangled” with the word Grenada and therefore it had no choice but to appear? Is Matt’s brain a quantum computer that manifested the word because he was thinking about it, i.e. you create your own reality? I know what I think, but telling you would add nothing to this discussion. We each have to decide on our own what we think these strange cases of uncanny timing mean!
S.C.O.U.T.- Moments later, Matt comes rushing into my bedroom with his “Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader, 10th anniversary edition“, pg. 303, opened to the section he had begun reading. If your familiar with these books you know that each page has a bottom crawling, random little tid-bit that will, more often than not, get you to say “wow!”. Matt definitely said “wow!” that night because the bottom crawler stated that
“Double speak: The U.S. government called the invasion of Grenada a “predawn vertical insertion”.
This is the only place in the 500 page book that Grenada is mentioned and Matt had opened right to it. What uncanny timing that it should appear just then and there, answering at least one of his questions (and like I said, it had nothing to do with that other thing you were thinking. Now don‘t you feel silly?!)!
Was it a coincidence? Did Matt “attract” the word Grenada to himself? Had God, the universe and the “powers that be” sent an answer to one of his questions? Or perhaps they were just getting in on the conversation, i.e. they‘re always listening and responding to our lives? Did Matthew become “entangled” with the word Grenada and therefore it had no choice but to appear? Is Matt’s brain a quantum computer that manifested the word because he was thinking about it, i.e. you create your own reality? I know what I think, but telling you would add nothing to this discussion. We each have to decide on our own what we think these strange cases of uncanny timing mean!
Sunday, November 7, 2010
April 14, 2010 - What's all the Hubble-bub about?
Background - I was having an interesting conversation with a dad from my son’s soccer team at our end-of-season party and found out that he and his co-worker were the two guys to put together the repair kit for the Hubble Space Telescope mirror problem a number of years back. “What a coincidence!” I said, my father-in-law was the engineer for NASA who was responsible for discovering that the battery in the telescope was so seriously flawed that it wouldn’t take long after launching it into space for the battery to die and turn the entire thing into orbiting space junk, and an enormous failure for NASA. The PR nightmare alone would have killed funding for numerous future projects.
I told him that my father-in-law had reconfigured the entire power system to extend the battery life far beyond what had originally been projected and hence Hubble went on to be one of NASA’s biggest successes. Although I was preaching to the choir because he already knew most of what I was telling him. We both agreed that most people had no idea what had gone into the Hubble Space Telescope because you rarely hear anything about it, let alone how the battery system exceeded all expectations. Oh well, such is the way of our world. Time to cut the cake!
S.C.O.U.T. - The following night we were watching Jeopardy. One of the categories was “The Hubble Space Telescope”. We had a little laugh about that because of the conversation from the night before. How strange that the Hubble would appear so soon after we’d spent so much time talking about it. We got a shiver though when the answer to the final question in the category was…
“What was the battery that lasted 13 years longer than they expected it to?”!
I looked at my husband, he looked back at me, and then we both looked at our dog Scout. I stand corrected. The contestant got the answer right, so clearly someone has been paying attention to the Hubble Space Telescope… and clearly God and the universe have been paying attention to my conversations!
I told him that my father-in-law had reconfigured the entire power system to extend the battery life far beyond what had originally been projected and hence Hubble went on to be one of NASA’s biggest successes. Although I was preaching to the choir because he already knew most of what I was telling him. We both agreed that most people had no idea what had gone into the Hubble Space Telescope because you rarely hear anything about it, let alone how the battery system exceeded all expectations. Oh well, such is the way of our world. Time to cut the cake!
S.C.O.U.T. - The following night we were watching Jeopardy. One of the categories was “The Hubble Space Telescope”. We had a little laugh about that because of the conversation from the night before. How strange that the Hubble would appear so soon after we’d spent so much time talking about it. We got a shiver though when the answer to the final question in the category was…
“What was the battery that lasted 13 years longer than they expected it to?”!
I looked at my husband, he looked back at me, and then we both looked at our dog Scout. I stand corrected. The contestant got the answer right, so clearly someone has been paying attention to the Hubble Space Telescope… and clearly God and the universe have been paying attention to my conversations!
Monday, November 1, 2010
April 12, 2010 - The healing power of a fruit smoothie
Background- I was volunteering at the front door of our high school. A job that I loved because it was easy, helped out the school and, as a bonus, I got to catch glimpses of my freshman son as he darted past me to class. This particular morning was slow so I had plenty of time to day dream. I was thinking about my mom and how it was now almost five years since she passed away. Before I knew it I found myself wading through the pain and torment of the last weeks of her life and started to get really bummed out. While I try not to do that anymore because it’s a useless exercise in self torment and doesn’t change a thing, on occasion I still drift back to those dark days and wonder if there is anything I could have done differently. Anything I could have done to save her or, at the very least, anything I could have done to ease her suffering and her fears.
I was happily saved from my aching conscience by a young woman who came limping into the lobby with an orthopedic boot on one foot. She was carrying a Tropical Smoothie cup and I assumed she had treated herself to a foot healing dose of fruit and one of the many other additives that Tropical Smoothie offers to boost your immune system, heal your soul and put a smile on your face. I made a comment to her along those lines and she proceeded to tell me that she was bringing it in for her Dad. He wasn’t feeling well and she said "I thought it might perk him up". By now she had an odd look on her face because I was just sitting there stunned with my mouth hanging open.
S.C.O.U.T
I had brought my Mom a Tropical Smoothie nearly every single day she was in the critical care unit at Reston hospital. I would help her drink it because she was too weak to hold it to her own mouth. When she was done I would smile, kiss her forehead and tell her “There, now that will perk you up!”
I fought hard to push back the tears for fear I would spook her and send this medicine toting angel running from the building. I couldn’t bear the thought of robbing this ailing man of the healing power of his daughters love, or the antioxidants in a blue lagoon blueberry smoothie. I signed her in and told her I hoped her Dad felt better. Once she had limped far enough down the hall, I laid my head on the table and let a few of those tears slip down my cheek. Maybe, just maybe, I had done all I could for my Mom and she wanted me to know that it was the little things anyway. Little things like showing up with her favorite smoothie and helping her drink it that showed how much I loved her, and that the little things were enough… or maybe it was just a coincidence. Either way, I felt a lot better, kind of like when I sit and pet my sweet, goofy dog S.C.O.U.T. and have a good cry into his soft, furry neck. Uncanny.
I was happily saved from my aching conscience by a young woman who came limping into the lobby with an orthopedic boot on one foot. She was carrying a Tropical Smoothie cup and I assumed she had treated herself to a foot healing dose of fruit and one of the many other additives that Tropical Smoothie offers to boost your immune system, heal your soul and put a smile on your face. I made a comment to her along those lines and she proceeded to tell me that she was bringing it in for her Dad. He wasn’t feeling well and she said "I thought it might perk him up". By now she had an odd look on her face because I was just sitting there stunned with my mouth hanging open.
S.C.O.U.T
I had brought my Mom a Tropical Smoothie nearly every single day she was in the critical care unit at Reston hospital. I would help her drink it because she was too weak to hold it to her own mouth. When she was done I would smile, kiss her forehead and tell her “There, now that will perk you up!”
I fought hard to push back the tears for fear I would spook her and send this medicine toting angel running from the building. I couldn’t bear the thought of robbing this ailing man of the healing power of his daughters love, or the antioxidants in a blue lagoon blueberry smoothie. I signed her in and told her I hoped her Dad felt better. Once she had limped far enough down the hall, I laid my head on the table and let a few of those tears slip down my cheek. Maybe, just maybe, I had done all I could for my Mom and she wanted me to know that it was the little things anyway. Little things like showing up with her favorite smoothie and helping her drink it that showed how much I loved her, and that the little things were enough… or maybe it was just a coincidence. Either way, I felt a lot better, kind of like when I sit and pet my sweet, goofy dog S.C.O.U.T. and have a good cry into his soft, furry neck. Uncanny.
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