An Interesting Coincidence?

An Interesting Coincidence?

You may remember a post I wrote on December 29^th entitled: “This Theater of the Mind”. I wrote it the day before my mother died.

It is a very volatile screed for mature audiences only (what else would you expect from the likes of me?) It deals in a very roundabout way how we make choices of dress and associations that shape the character of our actions, demeanor, and thoughts.

It also questions how limited or pre-determined our behaviors and thinking become, based on those choices. The examples I used revolved around the Kink/Fet, BD/SM, and GLBT communities (One should write about what one knows…), and a warm-up paragraph about our choices of religions, Sin, and Punishments, as a satire.

Imagine my surprise to find a post entitled “The Theater of the Mind” dated December 4^th by another author in my reader. I must admit I have no idea why his work is in my reader, (other than the fact that I chose to follow him for reasons totally unknown to me now) because we could not possibly be farther afield from each other, and true to form, the body of his post bears absolutely no resemblance to my work in either style or content.

He did, however quote Shakespeare’s “All the world (or Life) is a stage…” in his opening, as I did, albeit with a different twist.

I was not offended. Although I Googled and Wikkied “Theater of the Mind”, I did not find any cross-references to it, but nonetheless do not consider it to be especially original, because it probably isn’t.

I often have been known to include references to song lyrics or titles and catchphrases of some particular era, or even what one reader called a “shout-out” to Dr. Who when I made a metaphor about the Targus (referencing something that it larger on the inside than on the outside).

The reader responded to it very positively, and in the course of our discourse, I explained how there were also two other references to both a very beloved author, and one of his works, for which he thanked me profusely, once he looked those up. What one may call a “shout-out” I consider to be an “homage”.

Some days, it seems like all existence is one giant allegorical reference.

If I was writing a research paper or treatise of some kind, I would be obligated to quote my source, etc. or risk charges of plagiarism.

Thankfully, so-called “original” or “creative” writing is not so encumbered, at least in the most modern genre, especially considering recent court rulings on practices like “sampling” (in the Music Industry), for instance.

“Re-blogging” a piece, does not even require the permission of the author. Indeed, the rules have changed drastically, probably for the better.

As many of you know, I am very fond of sharing all manner of things….

I made a comment to his post, calling attention to the “coincidence”, which he briefly approved, then removed. He has not, as of yet, seen fit to reply.

I sent him this comment:

“Theater of the Mind?”…What an interesting co-incidence…Please feel free to read my post of December 29th entitled “This Theater of the Mind”. Although we start with the same title, and interestingly enough, the same reference to Shakespeare’s “All the world (or life) is a stage”, that is indeed where the similarity ends.

Curious…just to see how far afield we could be with the same start. We must come from similar backgrounds somewhere long ago, because you make frequent references to similar metaphors I heard as a child. (Like the Bottle/Lobotomy thing).

Your reference to “the living sacrifice” of Romans 12:1/2 would lead me to believe you to be a pious man, so you may NOT want to read my post, on second thought… (It is always my intention to avoid giving offense, and there is none intended.)

Then again, I have also been known to say that “great minds surf the same gutters”…

Please allow me to introduce myself…Mr. D.

“There are no co-incidences, there are no accidents” (The Celestine Prophecy)

My point is this: Based on my (very limited and biased) understanding of quantum mechanics, we are in a time loop (infinity) that is constantly recycling and converting the same matter and energy. There is nothing new anywhere.

When we die, our energy is released back into the Universe. In this sense, we are immortal. Every encoded engram of thought is energy that can neither be created nor destroyed, and (I am told) every sperm contains thirty-seven point five megabytes of information. (…maybe that is why I am so very fond of sharing information, btw…).

I was also a licensed amateur radio operator and an improvisational musician. I think our brains work like receivers for those bits of energy, and how we assimilate and assemble those bits of energy and information is what gives us our (semi) unique character as an assemblage of ideas.

It’s all recycled immortality.