"A Vat of What"

My sister drew my attention to the fact my treatise on natural phenomena, and earthquakes in particular, was timely because of  the 5.6. richter scale quake in the California Desert the next day. That will make up for my flooding prediction that came a week late, and from an opposite direction. I actually think these kinds of prognostications take place with all of us, but we do a quiet denial to maintain our sanity.  The relative success of t.v. series about these talents would indicate we are at least interested on some level.  And fiction seldom precedes fact. Sure odds play a role. Sure coincidence is a player. Folklore gets its licks into the fray. But sometimes, with absolutely no background, scientific or otherwise, we just blurt out something profound that is seemingly correct.  How'd we do it? Where did it come from? Why were we the conduit? What does it mean?

Here's an example. I was in my senior year of college with a little Honda '55 motorcycle as my sole transportation. Most days it was adequate. If it rained, my 6 mile trip to campus was a wet uncomfortable ride, but I could live with that. Then one day I pulled into a major intersection where a recent rain left puddles and a slickness that grabbed my front tire and sent me sliding along the asphalt.  I wasn't seriously hurt, but it got me to thinking.

 My Dad had this '57 Chevy mostly sitting in the garage because his commute to work was half a block. So I'm thinkin' maybe he wouldn't mind trading for 6 months until I graduated.  I felt really guilty even considering it, but then looked down at the scrapes on my arms and legs and made the call.  It went like this:

"Hi Dad! I uh...."

"Hey Paul,  how would you like to trade the Chevy for the Honda."

I didn't say anything but mischievously thought maybe I should play hardball. "Gosh, I don't know dad. I've really gotten used to it. "

Wisely I kept my mouth shut and just uttered, "Okay."

He didn't know about my slide through traffic. We had never before discussed the idea of a trade. Where did that come from?

I'm sure by asking the question a host of religious, cultural and scientific explanations will arrive airmail overnight. But I have some thoughts of my own.  I think there is just this big ol' huge vat of itty bits of ideas and feelings floating in some vacuum that we all have access to. We all go to it every day looking for something to make sense. And for all of us there are probably no more than a hundred times in a life time where we get a positive hit.  Most of us just keep our mouths shut not wanting to spend  some time in  the "happy place."

Other's see an opportunity. They take their act on the road as a nightclub act, or go to work solving major crimes for the FBI.

I have to admit that when something like the Honda incident occurs, you experience some sense of grandeur.  Did I actually think my dad into making that offer?

That grandeur typically clears itself up in time. In the case of the Honda it did. I can show you a picture of my dad sitting on that machine with a big smile on his face. Every once in a while he would put my mother on the back and ride around the block. I have that picture too. He didn't have enough hair by then to have wind blow through it, and the '55 didn't go fast enough to have bugs splatter all over his teeth and reading glasses. Still my dad wanted that Honda '55 cause he was having his version of a mid-life crisis. He loved it.

So that was one case of each of us just dipping into the vat and happening to hit paydirt on our own self serving agendas. The odds are never in our favor in dipping into the vat, but if we live normal length lives?  We are all going to hit the nail on the head by accident some time.

Look for a 7.2 richter scale quake somewhere between San Diego and Portland, Oregon, some time within the next 60 years.