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ATG
01-13-2008, 08:23 PM
I've noticed several minor, yet strangely omnipresent connections throughout my life.
I was going to name this thread The Destiny Bell, because I thought that might strike a more familiar note.
The Destiny Bell is that thing you feel ( or hear ) when you've met somebody or been someplace that you know you have a connection with.
I think I first heard that it in fifth grade when they came around asking for sign ups for the orchestra. I didn't think. My hand just shot up. I had never spent one second thinking about it, but then the question was asked, and a shock of energy went through me and I knew just like I had to breathe that I wanted to do that. So I spent the next five years playing violin.

The second time I remember it, I was hiking near Little Cottonwood Canyon and I climbed up to some rocks on the shoulder. I found a mine shaft and all at once I was over whelmed with a feeling that I had been there before. Or mined before.

I used to obsess about a particular character from a Stephen King novel; Harold Lauder from The Stand. It wasn't his looks or the way King described him, it was his obsession with quirky archaic literature. I wrote King a lengthy letter explaining the connection I felt and damned if he didn't write me back and nice letter and sent pages of how-to-write stuff.

About that time I had a very vivid dream. I was in a rowboat with somebody, but I couldn't see their face. They fell off and began to sink. It was like that scene in the end of Titanic where she let's him go and he slowly sinks down. As he sank I could see his face. It was my face. I'm not sure which came first, the dream, or the irrational fear of deep water. Either way, when I saw the ocean for the first time, I heard it.

When I was about 12, my Mom belonged to one of the record of the month clubs. Every month she got a new 8 track cassette. One of them was called Permanent Waves. I listened and listened. I didn't recognize the sound of the bell, but it was ringing. You know how 8 tracks are; in the middle of Jacobs ladder it would switch tracks. I got to do a meet and greet with Geddy Lee when My Favorite Headache came out. I thanked him for changing my life. ( perhaps more on this later )
Wheels within wheels in a spiral array
A pattern so grand and complex
Time after time we lose sight of the way
Our causes can't see their effects (http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/rush/naturalscience.html)


So there I was, playing a twelve string guitar in a coffee shop with my bro Jeff Mattert (http://www.paganblues.com/) and my future wife walked in. It didn't matter that I was 'living in sin', engaged to be married to this other girl, the sound of The Destiny Bell almost split the room. Weird how I had played with the drummer in her favorite band some ten years before. And one of my employees went to school with her. And Joe at the hardware shop whom I've known for five years is married to her cousin, I'd never have known if it wasn't for the barbecue two weeks ago where we all hashed the details.

Recently I cracked open volume seven of The Dark Tower, by Stephen King. I've been savoring it, saving it; letting it age like fine wine.
My blood ran cold. On the inside cover there is a picture of The Gunslinger.
It looks alot like me. He is THE character I relate to.

http://i18.tinypic.com/6nw8qcm.jpg

http://i15.tinypic.com/6o1mlnd.jpg

ZoNeSeeK
01-13-2008, 08:59 PM
So what did your fiance say when you explained the relationship was over because you saw another woman and a bell went off?

ATG
01-13-2008, 09:06 PM
The truth?

She slept in the guest bedroom. Everything was fine, we were going to break up, I gave her a 30 day notice or offered to go ahead and bail.

About 12 hours later when I got home from work, the cops were waiting to arrest me, the house was almost empty and it all went downhill from there.

4 hours in jail first explaining patiently to everybody what had happened ( the charge was making terrorist threats; she said I was going to kill her and go to the local strip mall and commit some mass killing ) and then finally released unharmed ( except they confiscated several of my firearms for two weeks ).

I got out @ 12 AM, drove an hour to the soon-to-be-wifes house and we hung out until dawn.

It was beautiful.

ZoNeSeeK
01-13-2008, 09:12 PM
Are you on drugs?

ATG
01-13-2008, 09:16 PM
Actually, no.