As reported July 9, I finished Callaghan’s The Loved and the Lost which I had a strange intuition and compulsion to re-read. Within 2 days of this, a Calgary white woman was found dead, killed by a black friend.
Now one might say ironic coincidence, but I’m not 100% sure. I believe there are mysterious ‘vibrations’ and ‘energies’ which other people can and do pick up on. Of all the thousands of books in my library, why did I pick that one with such a strong intuitive feeling of rightness and relevance?
I will just add that everyone’s responses to tragedies like this week’s is affected by their various contexts. How I responded to this event was definitely influenced by my reading. Initially, my response was “How relevant Callaghan’s book still is over 70 years later” and “Plus ca change…” in terms of both the truths of literature and life experience.
I’ve often said “Timing is everything”, a statement I would put beside Updike’s “Context is all.” Sometimes one is struck by the unfortunateness and tragicness of timing (as much as the serendipitous) in whatever coincidence and synchronicity.