Nearly a century ago psychologist Carl Jung coined the word
Synchronicity to describe what he considered meaningful
coincidences. Life is full of coincidences and most of us, I suppose, have had
these things happen to us at one time or another under circumstances that caused
us to ponder if there is not something more than mere chance at work. Maybe not.
But I've been captivated by Jung's concept for a long time.
It was while reading about the old comedy team of Abbott & Costello
that I stumbled upon one of these meaningful circumstances - at least meaningful
for Bud Abbott.
I've included a link to a March 4, 1959 newspaper account of the death of
Lou Costello, from which I quote the following:
Death called the final cue for chubby comedian Lou Costello
while, by coincidence, Bud Abbott watched a TV movie of the team's famed "Who's
on First?" routine.
"Tell me, why was I watching that picture at that particular
time? I never watch it. After all, I've seen it a thousand
times."
Now I'm not saying this is anything more than one of those weird
coincidences which fill life, but it must have been extremely striking to
Abbott.
"It's just one of those things," the nonbeliever in Synchronicity would
say. And that may be right. All of us tend to center the cosmos around
ourselves, or at least often fall into the rut of thinking that way. Still, when
one of these meaningful coincidences occur in our own lives, it is certainly an
attention getter.
Certainly Jung and his Synchronicity seem out there to many in
today's modern, materialistic world. Not necessarily to me, however.
Remarkable things do fascinate. Wrap your mind around these:
ReplyDeletehttp://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?t=7636
http://www.everything2.com/title/Tecumseh%2527s+Curse
I enjoyed them both. The various comments, particularly at the second link, are not unlike the kind of rationalizations that are used in connection with justifying man's organized religions, showing how subtle and crafty indeed justifications for believing something can be.
Many hours of amusement can be had by searching 'fascinating facts', 'strange but true', etc.
@ exrelayman,
ReplyDeleteI already mentioned I'm sucker for Ripley's Believe It Or Not from way back! And thanks for the links. I hadn't seen them. I was aware of the "zero year curse," but always kind of thought it ended with the completion of FDR's third term. But it's interesting, still, even though it seems to be pure legend. The discussion was my favorite part of the second link, and I agree that belief in general can at times be "subtle and crafty." But these things are indeed fun to look at.