November 16, 2010 - "There's a first time for everything" - have you ever really thought about that old adage? What came before the "first time for everything"?

Background – Our family is not a military family, and while we have a great deal of respect for our nation’s service members, I found myself frustrated during a random question/conversation with my fifteen year old about the Medal of Honor.   I felt like it was something that I should know, and somewhat un-patriotic for not knowing it.  The question was “Is the Medal of Honor awarded to living soldiers too, or only deceased soldiers?”  I began an answer because I was sure I had to know, but quickly realized that I had absolutely no idea!  It was an important question, one that every American should know the answer to, and I told my son that we would absolutely look it up when we got home (or at least within the next few days, or weeks, or by the time….ugggh, stupid procrastination!).  Happily the universe had my back….

S.C.O.U.T. – THE VERY NEXT MORNING the news reported that President Obama will be awarding the Medal of Honor – for the very first time – to a living service member from the Iraq/Afghanistan wars!  I was literally stunned!  I went back and asked my son why he had brought up that question (I suspected maybe he had seen it on the news as well – although he doesn’t watch much news, and I knew I hadn’t seen this report yet so it was highly unlikely that he had – or maybe the school had announced the story) and he told me that his class had been reading a war book for the last few weeks and the President in the book had awarded the Medal of Honor to one of the characters.  It had gotten him thinking about the medal, what it meant, and who got it. 

I passed the information along to my son, who was equally stunned at the timing.  Timing, such a funny thing in this world…“Now that he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me.  People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion” ~ Albert Einstein upon the death of his life-long friend, Michele Besso.

November 8, 2010 – To what degree do you believe in “A Strange Case Of Uncanny Timing”

Background - Our French exchange student challenged our family to do a lot of conversions to not only the metric system, but from Fahrenheit to Celsius.  During these conversion challenges I began to wonder about the symbol for degrees (the little open dot in the upper right hand corner of the number) which made a statement of temperature instantly recognizable.  I wondered where this symbol had come from and why this particular symbol had been chosen to represent temperature.  I laughed at myself because I felt like this was something I should already know - having gone through many, many years of schooling.  I decided to do what anyone else, who wants to know anything about anything, does these days - Google it when I had a chance.  Which essentially meant never – I’m a master procrastinator and still can’t work that function on my “smart phone” (which is apparently smarter than me, grrrr).

.C.O.U.T. - The next day I flip open my U.J.B.R. (Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader – The “Fast Acting, Long Lasting 18^th Edition, pg 14) and read the random, bottom crawling fact… “The degree symbol (they show a picture of the symbol, but I can’t find it on my keyboard, although I know there probably one there somewhere, grrrrr) is an ancient symbol representing the sun”.  Bam!  There you have it.  Asked and answered.

#1 – I have never wondered about the degree symbol before.

#2 – Out of roughly 3,000 pages of U.J.B.R.  reading, this is the only place this little tid-bit appears, just days after I wondered about it.

#3 - Simply uncanny.

"The atoms or elementary particles themselves are not real; they form a world of potentialities or possibilities rather than one of things or facts."  ~ Werner Heisenberg

Reader contribution - Would you like some muscle with that Namaste?

A friend of a friend posted on her blog about my blog!  She had a S.C.O.U.T. and wanted to share it....

One of my dearest friends, Kelly, has a friend who writes a pretty cool blog...S.C.O.U.T. (an acronym for A Strange Case of Uncanny Timing).  Essentially, she writes about situations that occur in her life and the lives of those around her that are unexplainable.  For instance, have you ever thought about a friend you haven't talked to or even thought about in years who inexplicably calls you a day after you thought of him/her?  Well, if you know what I am talking about, you must check out her blog AND keep reading this one, because I just had a S.C.O.U.T.experience myself involving one of my posts from yesterday and STROGA yoga studio!

In my Do/Sip post from yesterday, I unveiled a deal for yoga led by a super capable instructor from STROGA set in the glorious countryside of Rappahanock Cellars!  Sounds decadent doesn't it?

Before I post anything that is new to me, I do some research to ensure that it is something that I would actually do myself!  I would totally do yoga in a vineyard!!  Right? 

Well, I must be honest with you.  I had not heard of STROGA until yesterday.  Only after my due diligence found that the folks over at STROGA are top notch and offer a unique approach to yoga with an emphasis on strength training, hence the name, did I feel comfortable sharing it with you! 

I digress...back to my S.C.O.U.T. moment.  Today I open up an email from Recoup, which is a fantastic deal site that gives a portion of your purchase to a selected charity of your choice.  You can even increase your charitable donation by decreasing your savings.  Totally up to you.  So I open the Recoup email, and what do I see?  A deal from the very same yoga studio that I had never heard of until yesterday.  You guessed it!  STROGA!  I think it's a sign that I must either buy theRecoup offer or head down to Rappahanock Cellars for one of their Vinyasa in the Vineyard experiences through Living Social!  Either way I take my S.C.O.U.T. experience full circle AND get some zen mind and body time to boot!  Namaste. 

~ Love her blog by the way!  Check it out   http://verumvita.posterous.com/do-29-for-five-yoga-or-fitness-classes-on-rec

October 28, 2010 - "Bordeaux"; delicious wine, beautiful French city, or spine tingling S.C.O.U.T.?

Background – I spent the afternoon daydreaming about going to Bordeaux.  Our French student, who resides in this coastal French city, left this afternoon to return to his beloved home.  He had spent a good portion of his visit with us working to convince me that we must all come to visit.  I vowed that we would.  I had never worked up the nerve, during his entire visit, to tell him that upon his arrival I had learned that Bordeaux was an actual city in France (!) and not just a delicious wine from a region in France.  I was totally embarrassed at my ignorance of this fact.  Now that I knew however, visiting this wonderful little city was all I thought about for the rest of the day.

S.C.O.U.T. – My husband and I had been invited to a silent auction fund raiser that same night.  As we made our way down the table looking at everything from sports paraphernalia to spa getaways we approached the grand auction item of the night… a five day trip to the quaint little city of Bordeaux France for wine tasting and sightseeing!  I was swayed on my feet as the realization that one week ago I didn’t even know Bordeaux was a city, that I had spent this entire day dreaming of a visit to this newly discovered city, and that now I standing in front of an opportunity to take that very trip!  Simply uncanny!!  “Did my intense earlier musings bring this opportunity into being, or was it nothing more than a coincidence?”  That is my question, and as I trundle along through life - watching, recording and examining - the answer is becoming chillingly clear to me.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to talk my husband into throwing caution to the wind, liquidating the kid’s college funds and bidding aggressively on this tripL.  Instead, we made a small fantasy bid and vowed that we would someday, when the kids were older, make our way to Bordeaux. 

"The doctrine that the world is made up of objects whose existence is independent of human consciousness turns out to be in conflict with quantum mechanics and with facts established by experiment."  ~ Bernard d'Espagnat

October 29, 2010 - "ESP" - Extra Sensory Perception OR Electrifyingly Staggering Phenomenon

Background – Mike (my husband) shot a message to a woman (Leslie) who he hadn’t spoken to in some time.  He was starting a new job thought they could talk some business to their mutual benefit.  The next morning the phone rang – it was Leslie returning his message.

S.C.O.U.T. – The first thing out of her mouth was “OMG!  You must have ESP!  Bob Ayres and I were on a plane yesterday talking about you and it made me think that I need to give you a call.  When I got home I got your message and it totally freaked me out!!”

Re-al-i-ty - "The state or quality of being real" according to dictionary.com

This little parlor trick has happened to me on more than one occasion, it has clearly happened to Leslie, and I know it has happened to youJ, and at that moment did you stop to think?  I mean really think, about whether you truly believe it was just a coincidence?  As that tingle creped down your spine and, just for a split second, you felt the overwhelming awe that our world is nowhere near as solid as it appears…. “Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one” ~ Albert Einstein.

October 29, 2010 - I wonder what the French word for "entanglement" is?

Background – I took Tongi - the French exchange student who was staying with us - out to the outlet shops in Leesburg so he could pick up some fancy American jeans before heading home.  We were chatting about this and that and I mentioned something about a court case that was going on locally and said the word “attorney”.  Tongi was trying to understand this word and ask me a few questions to clarify.  When I told him that “attorney” was the same word as “lawyer” he understood immediately what I had been saying.  He proceeded to tell me that the word “attorney” in French is the same word for a green fruit with black skin and a large round pit in the middle.  At first I was confused and then it clicked, “avocado”!  We talked about the two words for a moment and I wondered how in the world those two things could have the same word in French.

S.C.O.U.T. – That very same afternoon, I was driving Tongi and Zack (my son) around and Zack begins to tell me a story about his French class earlier that morning - they had learned that the word for attorney is the same word for avocado (!!) and one of the boys in the class found that fact so funny that it took the teacher 15 minutes to get him to stop laughing and get back to the lesson of the day.  By this time I had a substantial tingle running down my spine.  I asked Zack what time he had his French class and we figured out that Tongi and I were driving to the outlets and having nearly the very same conversation about the funny green fruit and the French word for attorney… at the very same time!  Crazy uncanny. 

The word “entanglement” is used to describe a phenomenon from quantum mechanics in which two particles, once “entangled”, behave instantaneously in an identical manner…no matter how far apart they are!!  I’m talking across the room or across the Universe!  This phenomenon has been studied for years and been proven over and over again.  We are, on our fundamental level, made up of these very same particles.  Is “uncanny” just another word for “entangled”?  and if so, the implications are staggering, don’t you agree?!!  

October 24, 2010 - Walkman walks no more

Background – I was driving home from Gettysburg after spending the day touring the battle fields on a Segway (awesome tour…I highly recommend it).  I had with me my son Zack and our French exchange student, Tongi.  The boys were chatting about all kinds of things in their comparison of our two countries and landed on the subject of the Sony Walkman.  I had to chuckle when I realized that the conversation centered on the fact that, while they had heard of a Sony Walkman, they weren't entirely sure what it actually was.  I decided to date myself and explain it to them in the interest of strengthening our international relations with France.  After a few “runs” at trying to get them to see how this thing worked, “cassette tape??”, I ended by telling them that I didn't even know if they make the Sony Walkman anymore.  That was the end of the conversation, but I gave just a few more minutes to thinking about this ancient device and what had happened to it, “are they still making that thing - or can you now only find one in a museum somewhere?!”.

S.C.O.U.T.  – The very next night, as the news ran through its various news articles, my ears pricked and the hair on my neck stiffened as the anchor woman began to profile the next story…apparently there was an announcement from electronics giant “Sony” today; they will no longer be making the “Sony Walkman”….

Asked and answered…coincidence?  YGTBKM!!  Seriously, YGTBKM if you believe that.

October 22, 2010 - Siddartha you sly old dog

Background – I was substituting for half a day today so I had the morning to putts around the house.  The hubby is also working from home today and we got talking about one of our kids and a mistake he made.  The conversations grew to encompass mistakes that all of our kids have made and then finally about kids and mistakes in general.  We concluded, in all our parenting wisdom, that you have to let kids make their mistakes and take the consequences, even if it means that they end up failing in certain areas.  We agreed that this is one of the hardest parts of parenting; but sheltering, rescuing and heading off all the pain that bad decisions have to offer only puts them at a disadvantage as they grow.  It was a good discussion, and we consoled each other about all the pain that was sure to come if we chose to live by this creed.  It’s so difficult to watch your child suffer, especially when you know they did it to themselves!  My husband and I were finished talking and silently turned back to our work, the hint of doubt that we would actually be able to stick to our guns and watch our kids fail hanging in the air.

S.C.O.U.T. – One hour later I plopped down to read the book my son - the one who had made the mistake and spurred the conversation with my husband - had given me.  The book is “Siddartha” by Herman Hesse.  In the first few pages I learn that Siddartha has a son.  I thought absolutely nothing of this fact until a few pages later when Siddartha’s friend begins to give him parenting advice…

“Who protected Siddartha the Samana from Samsara, from sin, greed and folly?  Could his father’s piety, his teacher’s exhortations, his own knowledge, his own seeking, protect him?  Which father, which teacher could prevent him from living his own life, from soiling himself with life, from loading himself with sin, from swallowing the bitter drink himself, from finding his own path?  Do you think, my dear friend, that anybody is spared this path?  Perhaps your little son, because you would like to see him spared sorrow and pain and disillusionment?  But if you were to die ten times for him, you would not alter his destiny in the slightest.”

…a complete repeat of my conversation with my husband - although I have to give Herman Hesse a few extra credit points for the fancy-smancy language.    Oh, how I would love to be able to ask Siddartha a few questions myself.  Where o’where would I begin?

Simply uncanny.

September 23, 2010 - This is nothing to "yolk" about

Background – My son Matt and I were baking a cake for my father-in-laws 80^th birthday, and Matt tackled the task of separating the eggs.  As he was flopping the yolk from one shell to the other he noticed the white, stringy thing hanging from the yolk.  He calls me over, points it out and asks me if it’s a fetus.  I have a good laugh and then tell him that I don’t know what it’s called, but that it’s definitely NOT a fetus!  In light of my clearly lacking knowledge as to what this thing is called and what its purpose is, he shrugs me off and declares that he’s pretty sure it’s a fetus.  I have little else to add except “It’s NOT a fetus” and we move on to finish the cake.

S.C.O.U.T. – A little over an hour later – yes, just ONE HOUR later - cake cooling, I settle into my reading chair with my UJBR “Supremely Satisfying” edition of random trivia and pop the book open to pg. 61 where I had left off the last time I read.  The title of the next section is “Test Your Egg I.Q.”.  That familiar tingle begins to creep down my spine as I read the blurb about the stringy white thing attached to the yolk of an egg.  It’s called the “chalazae” and its primary function is to hold the yolk in place. 

I sit for a moment – stunned - and contemplate the over-whelming feeling that my world is nowhere near as solid as it appears and that there are moving parts and energy that we humans have only just begun to become aware of.  If I live for 100 years you will never convince me that this was just a mere coincidence.   My son asks me a question that I don’t have the answer to, and one hour later the answer randomly appears.... I use the word “randomly” very loosely here.  Uncanny, simply uncanny.

Reader contribution - Step back, slow down, and...meet me in the toy aisle!!

Background – My dear friend Adrianne has a dear friend Glennon.  I’ve never met Glennon, but know for a fact that she is a dear.  If you doubt me, just check out her FB page (Momastery) where you can access her blog “Momastery”.  She is all about peace, honesty, acceptance and “love wins”!  Anyway, this story is about how dear friends find each other, no matter what. 

Glennon and Adrianne have been friends since 2005; you can find the story of their meeting, written touchingly by Adrianne, in the December 2009 archives of the Momastery blog titled “Adrianne – Thanks and Praise”.  They have remained close friends even through the storms that life has pitched their way resulting in less and less time to see each other.  Glennon was in Adrianne’s part of town last weekend and decided to swing by her house for a catch up.  Adrianne had had a wicked bad weekend and Glennon must have been thinking about her.  She phoned Adrianne in order to track her down, hoping she was at home.

Adrianne answered her phone happy to hear from her dear friend, but sadly had to tell her she was not at home….

Glennon “Well, where are you?”

Adrianne “I’m at Wal-Mart”

Glennon “YOU’RE AT WAL-MART??”

S.C.O.U.T. – Adrianne “Yeah, I’m at Wal-Mart!  Why?”

Glennon “I’M AT WAL-MART!!  Meet me in the toy aisle” 

Adrianne and Glennon did indeed get their catch-up, and I have to believe that they were both happier for it; dear friends find each other, no matter what.  Do you honestly believe that this was just a coincidence?  Just mere happenstance that these two dear friends, both needing a dose of the soul-nourishment the other provides, just happened to be at Wal-Mart at the very same time in order to make that chat possible?  Ok if you do, but you’re wrong ;)  I find it simply uncanny. 

On two separate occasions I was thinking of a dear friend of mine, Laurie, who had moved to Wisconsin.  On both occasions I hadn’t heard from her in a long while - the first being months and the second time spanned years –and then received a letter in the mail from here within days.  On the second occasion I had been walking to the mailbox thinking of her and actually hesitated before opening the box with the thought “I wonder if Laurie wrote me a letter?”  I just had that funny feeling.  There was indeed a letter from her in the box - I had to stand for a moment to catch my balance as the power of the moment swayed me on my feet. 

Coincidence?  You know how I feel on the subject.  Love does indeed win.

Reader contribution - Nothing like a "Monster Bug War" to bring a family together

Background – My sister Alison sent me and my brother an email about a new show she was sure we would love called “Monster Bug Wars” on the Discovery channel.  My brother had never heard of this show and decided he would wait to respond to the email until he had checked it out; knowing my brother this could easily mean weeks, months, years and even never…but the universe had other plans. 

S.C.O.U.T. - That evening my brother’s fiance took her son’s phone from him as a punishment without knowing that that the alarm was set to ring at 5am (I'm thinking said son was exacting his revenge by keeping quiet!).  The phone rang right on cue the next morning, waking my now very grumpy brother and his fiancé.  She told my brother to tune the TV to channel 122 and see if the schools were delayed due to the bad weather the night before.  She thought that channel 122 was the local school channel and would be running the closings.

Not only was channel 122 the Discovery channel and not the local school channel, but the show that was playing was….you guessed it!  “Monster Bug Wars”!!  My stunned brother chuckled and vowed to email my sister that day.  He knows all too well that you ignore an order from the Universe at your own peril!!  Simply uncanny!!

September 19, 2010 - Goooooooooooooooal!!!! Simply Uncanny!

Background – I had to leave my son Jake’s game early last Sunday to go pick up my other boy.  I didn’t think it was any big deal though as Jake had just been pulled out of the game, and I’m one of those selfish shallow parents who really only cares what’s going on when my kid is on the field, sad but true.  As I was heading out, I commented to one of the parents on our team that I was still hoping for one more “Xtreme” goal, preferably from my son!  I had a brief moment of deep wishing for this highly unlikely event as the parent I had commented to worked on hiding his snicker at the thought of my boy scoring the goal. 

Unbeknownst to me, my husband, who was staying to watch, was practicing some “visualization” by imagining our son scoring the winning goal for the team as well.  This was a silly exercise because not only was Jake sitting on the bench, but he is a defender and is rarely in position to even get near our goal, let alone score.  Still, we were both having nearly the same thought, at the same time.

S.C.O.U.T. - I had just left the parking lot when Jake was substituted in at midfield to give another player a much needed break.  It took less than two minutes for him to make his way down the field and score the game winning goal.  The first goal he had ever scored for this team… not just the first winning goal, the very first goal ever!!  My phone lit up with the message from my husband “Jake just scored the goal!!!!  UFB!!!”

Now this may all seem like just a coincidence, I mean don’t all parents spend most of their thoughts during a game visualizing their kid scoring the game winning goal?  Maybe some, but not me.  Like I said, Jake is a defender and scoring goals isn’t part of his “job” on the field.  I have actually never had the thought that Jake would be scoring “a” goal, let alone “the” goal!  After talking with my husband, we agreed that this wasn’t one of our usual thoughts during Jake’s games, and we both had that tingle run down our spine as we put the events together. 

The question I have, and one you’re probably batting around right now as well is “if we had a chance the very next day to repeat these events, and we focused on Jake scoring the goal, we focused until our eyes ached and the veins on our temples bulged, would Jake once again score the goal?”  I feel the answer is “no”, which make all this seem even more like a coincidence.  The problem is…I know somewhere deep inside me, and I know from carefully observing the world around me, that this was no coincidence, and then I move on to the next question… so then “what is it”?

September 12, 2010 - "Clone worthy" is now a real phrase...soon to follow is "S.C.O.U.T. worthy"

Background – Matthew, my youngest, livened up our dinner conversation tonight by asking the question “Hey mom, should we clone Scout?”  It turned into a fun discussion about what it would be like to clone our beloved family fur ball and have a slew of wacky puppies just like him running all over the place.  I finally brought everyone back to reality, i.e. rained on the parade, by informing them that I was pretty darn sure that cloning wasn't a thing yet, but that it was fun to think about.  I knew that it had been done somewhere in the world, but had never heard of anything being cloned on a regular basis.   Conversation over, mom is - as always - right.

The dinner dishes were cleared, homework was finished and we all headed off to bed.

S.C.O.U.T. – It was an Uncle Johns Bathroom Reader night and I slipped in between the cool sheets to enjoy some mindless random trivia.  The second bottom crawling fact presented in my reading read as follows:

          

  “Trakr, a 9/11 rescue dog was cloned five times after he won a “most clone worthy dog” contest”

O.K., so they are definitely cloning dogs, and cloning them often enough to have a contest for a “free cloning” Who knew?!!  Could this also be telling me that I should think about cloning Scout?  After all, this little blurb about cloning is a S.C.O.U.T.   How strange that I should come across a fact about cloning (to be clear - the only cloning related fact that I’ve ever come across) only hours after having a fully blown conversation on this very subject.  Simply uncanny.  Now if I could just “clone” this phenomenon, right now it’s way too random and “improvable” for many to accept.  That being said, pay attention, it’s happening to you too – for there’s no doubt you are all “S.C.O.U.T. worthy”!!

From my diary - If the spirit can't move you to "it", can the spirit then move "it" to you?

Background – My grandmother passed away in the late spring of 1983 and it devastated my mother.  She sank into a zombie like stupor for the next six months that had us all wondering if this was how she would remain.  Happily though, with the approach of the holidays, she began perking up again and showing signs of hope.  This hope manifested itself in an obsessive need for my mom to decorate the house with all things related to my grandmother.  She pulled out her photos, her paintings, her dishes, her “collectibles”, and her artwork; my grandmother had begun crafting like a mad-woman in her old age.  She painted pictures and glued and glittered just about anything that would cooperate.  One such craft was a candle stick that she had made out of two baby food jars glued together at their lids, then glued again on either end to an upturned plate.  After a good thick coat of black spray paint, voila! you had yourself an adorable candle stick.  A large red candle, some glitter (of course) and some holly made a stunning display.  It was one of the really, really cute things she had made in her last years and my mother was absolutely determined that it would be the center-piece of her holiday tribute to my grandmother.  The only problem was that she couldn't find it.

She was able to enlist me and my older sister on her frantic search of every crevice in the house that may be hiding her beloved candle stick.  We started at the very top, tearing apart each and every closet and looking in every box under every bed, ending in the storage space in the basement.  I had taken the left walk in cubby and my mom had taken the right (my sister was pretending to “look” in the kitchen while eating left over chocolate cake).  After 20 minutes of looking we still had found no sign of the treasured candle stick, and my mom and I began to lose hope of finding it.

S.C.O.U.T. – I was now just noisily shuffling things around so that my mom would believe I was just as passionate about finding her candle stick as she was, but had really given up on this mission and was preparing to console her when she finally reached the same conclusion.  I had begun gently coaxing her in that direction through the bare beams that separated the two cubbies, I could see her moving around only a few feet from me, when my mom abruptly stopped and stood frozen in the middle of her cubby.

           

“Mom, it’s alright, we’ll find it next year” I said, thinking the reality of the situation had finally settled in on her.

           

“Guenny, come here” she said in a shaky voice.  Her tone was strange and haunting; it stood the hair on the back of my neck up and prickled my skin.  The first thing that popped into my head was that she had seen a mouse and was too scared to move.

           

“I’m coming.  What’d you see?  A mouse?”  I said, trying to head off any hysteria that may be mounting.

I stepped into the little cubby behind my mom and she looked up at me from where she had been staring at her feet.  I searched her face, now wondering what was going on, this was no mouse.  She had a ghostly look in eyes.  She slowly raised her hand and held her finger up in front of me, and then pointed down, 

“Look what I found”.  I looked down to the floor and saw the second half of a black candle stick peeking out from under the hem of her turquoise velour robe. 

           

“Oh, you found it!” I said with excitement.  “How did it get there?”  I asked as the strange location of the candle stick began to dawn on me. 

           

“I have no idea how it got there.  It wasn't there a moment ago” She said while searching my face for a reaction.

Needless to say, I was more than a little freaked out.  At first I didn’t want to believe what she was telling me, and looked for signs that I was about to be “had”, this surely "had" to be a joke, but my mother was dead serious.

We stood for a moment, long enough for the full weight of event to settle in, and then my mother bent down and picked up the candle stick.  We gave each other a knowing look, a promise of sorts, a look that made a silent pact between us that we would  always remember that this had actually happened and wasn’t just a trick of the light.  A look that said no matter how many years past we would always have each other to confirm this moment, to confirm that my grandmother wasn’t “gone” but was somewhere close by, watching over us and waiting to see us again, and that she had somehow delivered the precious candle stick that would soothe my mother’s aching heart.  We never actually spoke of it again, but the “look” was passed between us many times over the following years.

My mother is with my grandmother now, and someday I hope to bring you all the “candle stick” stories that she has provided me with since her passing, a few of them are real chillers.  I know I’m not alone and that there are many, many stories just like this one floating around out there, in fact, I bet you have a few of your own.  Someday I hope to hear, and record, them all for I find each and every one simply uncanny!

January 13, 2012 - "Reach out and touch faith", or faith will reach out and touch you

Background – My dear friend Sujatha and I were having one of our deep, philosophical discussions at the gym this morning.  This particular discussion centered on faith, and whether faith, prayer and “positive thinking” have measurable, “real life” effects.  I was telling her about a study I had read about which concluded that there was no measurable effect from prayer among the subjects that were studied.  I have thought a lot about that study over the last few years, being a fan of science, and wondered how that fits into my current belief system as it seems to contradict my belief in the existence of the “Strange Case Of Uncanny Timing”.  I have come to believe that it may be difficult if not impossible to actually measure these types of events.  Perhaps this is a case of “seeing what you want to see”, but as I go along my doubts about “uncanny timing” being “just a coincidence” continue to fade.  One possible explanation is that, in the world of quantum physics, one of the biggest challenges scientists face in their work is that just the act of observing and trying to measure an event has the power to alter the outcome of said event.  Hmmm?  Interesting!  I think of it as trying to capture a puff of smoke in your hand.  If you stand back and look, your eyes can capture the entire cloud, but when you reach for it...poof!  It slips right through your fingers.

You can draw your own conclusions on this subject, my point was just to tell you that the discussion that Sujatha and I were having this morning centered on having faith in things that science cannot, as of yet, prove.

S.C.O.U.T. - Sujatha scooted out of the gym and left me to my sweat and my IPod shuffle.  I clicked back in and finished the song that I had been enjoying when Sujatha and I began our conversation.  I then waited as the next song in the Shuffles “random” line-up of my 200+ songs cued up and began to play….“Your Own Personal Jesus” with the popular chorus “Reach out and touch faith” came barreling through my head phones, sending chills down my spine.

This song had not made its way through the random line-up for months – in fact, it had been so long that at first I couldn’t remember adding it to my play list at all.  How completely uncanny that it would choose this moment to surface?

Reach out and touch faith indeed.

September 8, 2010 – “Rick Roll’D”…yes, that’s correct - “R-i-c-k R-o-l-l-‘-D”

Background – I was driving home from school with my son Zack and, as is usual, my mind was wandering all over the place.  He was, as is also usual, chattering away with the belief that he had my full, undivided attention.  I don’t know how he got on the subject (because I wasn’t listening), but he began telling me about the internet phenomenon called getting “Rick Rolled”.  Not only had I never heard of this phenomenon, I wasn’t even sure I understood the words he was saying… “Rick Rolled”?  I kept repeating.  I threw out a few questions to try and clarify this internet activity that clearly made sense to all people under… well let’s just say my age (I’m not going to “say” my age), but the purpose of which was completely lost on an old fuss bucket like me.  Who is Rick?  Why is he rolling people?  What is rolling?  Is this supposed to be funny?  Is “funny” the ultimate goal here – because I’m not sure I “see” the funny?  As the tension grew, my son recognized the generation gap that had appeared like a killer vortex between us, threatening to suck us both into a no-win debate about what is “funny”, what is “appropriate use of the internet”, “pointless humor being thrown about at others expense” and other generation gap fueled argument staples.  He made the wise decision to change the subject.

S.C.O.U.T. – That night I popped open my Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader to do a little light trivial reading.  The third story in the in the line-up was called “The Rickroll” and detailed the entire internet phenomenon, much better than my son explained it by the way - I can now see the humor, although still pointless, in being “Rick Roll’D!!  Thanks to the UJBR, the generation gap, on this issue anyway, has been reduced to a smaller generational crack. 

Simply uncanny; I had never even heard this term until this afternoon and here it had randomly crossed my path twice in a day.  So now I know that I’ve never been “Rick Roll’D” on the internet, but I have no doubt that I’ve been “Scout’d” many, many times.

Just in case you need an explanation on the “Rick Roll”… The Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader titled “The World’s Gone Crazy”, pg 387, “The Rick Roll”.  Don’t bother thanking me, us old fuss buckets have to stick together.  

September 6, 2010 - Just follow the path...like you have a choice ;)

Background – I posted a new blog entry this morning and shortly thereafter got a wonderful note from an old friend about it.  We live right around the corner from each other, but with our busy lives going in different directions, haven’t seen each other in over a year.  I was really touched by her note and spent a lot of time that morning thinking about her.  My musings were interrupted by son #3 requesting a bike ride to enjoy the beautiful day.  He wanted to go right away, but I had some things to get done and managed to put it off for over an hour.  Chores completed, I headed out with my impatient son Matt to take that bike ride, all the while thinking of my old friend… perhaps I’ll see her on the path today!  What a silly thought as I haven’t seen her in over a year, but I have this funny feeling…. 

 S.C.O.U.T. – Right before you get to the river, there is a long stretch of straight path.  Off in the distance I could see a man and a woman walking towards us.  A tingle ran down my spine as we got closer and I realized that this couple was my old friend and her husband out for a walk.  Not only was it not lost on me the unbelievably uncanny timing of this meeting, but also the fact that had we left the house when my son wanted to leave, over an hour ago, we would have missed them altogether.   

Coincidence?  Come now, do you really believe that? 

My goofy dog Scout loves his walks to the river, but has yet to learn how to ride a bike.  Therefore he is still mad at me for choosing this mode of transportation for the outing and won’t comment on the identity of the puppeteer who often seems to be conducting this strange orchestra we call life.  He’ll get over it, and perhaps then will reveal the answer to some of these cosmic questions… or not.