My daughter was coming over this afternoon and I thought to put on some music for her. At home, we have about 20 CDs pulled out, many of them obscure and out-of-print. I chose the very uncommon, rare Oscar Peterson Xmas album and the first cut comes on: “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”. I decide to go out and get coffees from Tim’s. On the way back, I try about 10 car AM/FM channels, looking for some Christmas music. I hear something jazzy and leave the improv instrumental section on. Suddenly the string bassist starts playing the melody of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”. Oscar Peterson’s, further on from the beginning of the track. Continuance. Connection. Random. Arbitrary. With a whole bunch of choices I had personally made, consciously or not.
Basically, it could be said that I (or my subconscious mind) chose to play the same song. Or that I found what I was perhaps really looking for. Or that I found what I remembered. Or that the later but closely-timed, completely disparate, exterior context lined up with an earlier “starting moment”. Did I, consciously or subconsciously will the sequence and synchronicity to happen? Or was/is there something/someone separate that/who willed this episode to occur as it did? Or was it completely random happenstance that the tumblers came up the same?
It is these recurring sorts of happenings that suggest a somewhat coherent world of mystery and mysterious experience. It is also a somewhat delightful, surprising occurrence for a conscious mind to see a pattern, to see there is a World of Wonders, for us to behold, if only we are or can be aware and truly conscious of (attuned and in contact with) the meaningful, possibly purposeful flow of our experience.