Lost in Translation 2.0

I posted a video here last night – a funny video about subtitles – and called it “Sometimes words escape me”. I woke up in the middle of the night knowing I had to change the title to “Lost in Translation”, as this more aptly conveyed my feelings about the clip. While having breakfast I logged in and made the changes.

Every morning when I get to work, the first thing I do (after taking care of any pressing business) is have a coffee and read the Globe and Mail’s Facts & Arguments. This is the title of this morning’s essay:

May 1, 2009
Facts & Arguments: THE ESSAY
Leah Giesbrecht
LOST IN TRANSLATION AND LOSING MY HAIR

The bio line at the end of the essay indicates that Leah lives in Vancouver.

Is this just coincidence or is the Universe trying to get through to me? These coincidences have been happening a lot lately. The TV will be on but I’ll be reading. I’ll read a word, that for whatever reason stands out, at the exact same moment someone says the word on TV. And these aren’t common everyday words. They are words like benevolent, inspired, eclipse, anchovy. I will think of someone that I haven’t spoken to in a long time and I will get a Facebook message from them. I will comment on a favourite movie that I want to see again, only to discover it’s on TV in an hour.

I know there is a theory of global consciousness but is this what’s at work here? Did Leah, knowing her essay would be appearing today, send a thought into the global consciousness that I picked up on in my sleep?

This is one of life’s mysteries (déjà vu and Bacon Lip Balm being two others)




that will never be properly explained. Princeton can send out thousands of EGGs to collect data on “the presence and activity of consciousness in the world” but what will that prove? At the end of the day when we lay our heads on our pillows we are still bewildered and perplexed by this thing called life. We question our purpose and place in the order of things. We seek out coincidence or religion or sex to try to affix meaning to the otherwise randomness of our lives (not that there’s anything wrong with that). And yes, Leah and I probably do have a connection. We both need to write our thoughts and feelings down in an attempt to understand our experience and to share it -- to see its universality. Global Consciousness? Just maybe.