This is a Journal entry by

something strange

Post 1

Researcher 1300304

i actually thought i had written this journal entry before. and i haven't. which is odd in the way thinking you have driven to work and realising you haven't is. at first you think someone has stolen your car. and even when you are on the train home you are genuinely confused about which end of the line your car might really be. and then there is a sense of injustice about it. 'why am i having to take the train?' you think. 'this isn't right.'

so that this journal entry is about universal incongruity is itself teasing. and by incongruity i mean those moments of strangeness or coincidence when you genuinely wonder about how the universe really works.

let me take you back. i had finished my studies and was working as a business consultant. i didn't like the job, but there was a recession that i had been invited to and since i wasn't doing anything else for a good amount of time, thought i had better RSVP. my studies involved for the most part a philosophy degree capped with a post grad business diploma. i had hoped for one of those jobs in buildings with lots of glass. the sort of job where you get to say things like 'hold my calls, i'll be in conference for the next 3 hours' to an attractive person wearing a black skirt and a nice blouse. instead i was working with an accountant doing quality assurance for businesses that did things like make neon advertising signs or who recycled industrial waste. i wasn't in a happy state of mind and i was pretty annoyed i had to read hegel to get there.

so getting out of the office at lunch time for a walk became a respite from work and a chance to curse my education.

it happened at the very instant i was thinking about how i could have got it all so wrong, that a bell sounded from behind. the bicyclist was an odd man. pants tucked into socks. handlebars upside down like rams' horns. clearly a nutter.

he stopped, looked me straight in the eye and said 'that paul davies wouldn't be an idiot would he? mind of god! he doesn't even know his own mind!' and rode off without waiting for a reply.

i was puzzled by the seeming coincidence of what was happening in my own private thoughts and the utterances of a passing madman.

fast forward a year or so. i am in the markets standing in front of a vast array of bread, trying to make a choice. i realise that an excess of choice doesn't make my life easier. i preferred it when i had to choose from a small selection. i am startled by a voice from behind me say, 'bread! look at all the bread. first it is good for you, then it is bad for you and then it is so good you cannot choose! and hats! men wore hats. then they didn't wear hats. now they wear hats again. life is told by the changing story of hats.'

yes. it was the nutter. and once again he does not wait for a reply.

fast forward another year. i am in the botanical gardens with my wife. i am nearly finished telling her the stories i just related. i am about to say that perhaps the man was right about hats, when, looking across the gentle slope of the lawns, i see, about 100 metres away, the very man himself.

'you aren't going to believe this' i say to my wife. 'but there he is over there.'

'you're right' she says, 'i don't believe you.'

'watch this then' i say as i realise the man has taken himself to a tangent to intersect with me. and, as the man nears, i say, 'that paul davies, doesn't even know whether to wear a hat or not. how could he possibly be trusted to buy bread?'

at this, the man froze in his tracks. i recognized his bewilderment because i had seen it from the other side twice before him. he turned and walked, almost ran, away.

and i wondered at what astonishing tale of coincidence would confound him for years forward.


something strange

Post 2

Researcher 1300304

i'd should add that i live in a city of about a million people, so the odds involved in this are not small.


something strange

Post 3

Felonious Monk - h2g2s very own Bogeyman

It's a fascinating anecdote. It's nice to see someone out-nutter the nutter. Although he was a better class of nutter.

I suggest you tart it up a bit and submit it to <./>ThePost</.>


something strange

Post 4

Researcher 1300304

cheers smiley - smiley


something strange

Post 5

anachromaticeye

What weird little story! smiley - biggrin I enjoyed it.

I think you should send it to the post as well.



...here is another tale of coincidence

A25819365


something strange

Post 6

Researcher 1300304

*chuckle* good one. my tale involved no 'enhancing cakes' however.

unfortunately.


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