Tuesday, March 08, 2011

An Experiment In Transatlantic Synchronicity

That finest of bloggers, Tess Kincaid, and I have always thought that there was an element of synchronicity about our blogging activities. We share a love of dusty old books and tattered old photographs and I can so often relate to the sentiments she expresses so magnificently in her wonderful poetry. But a couple of weeks ago when I posted a piece entitled "Swaying His Legs Like A Pair Of Woolen-Coated Pendulums", and Tess quite independently posted a poem which included the lines "but sleeps rolled / in a ball, a pendulum steeped-quick / and pulled-out, like a teabag", it seemed to be stretching chance a little too far. So we decided on a little experiment. We agreed that the following weekend we would both buy a picture postcard which somehow represented our thoughts at that particular time and mail the cards to each other. We agreed to post (on our blogs) the received cards and let others decide the exact balance between sheer chance and synchronicity. So here is the card that arrived through my postbox in a remarkable three days.



In order to properly judge the results of the experiment you will need to see my card which, hopefully, Tess will be posting on her blog later today. You can make you own judgments but it is interesting that whilst Tess posted a card which seemed to tell of an American girl going to France, I posted a book cover which told the story of an American girl (Lee Miller) who went to France. Perhaps, if you dig deep enough, you will always find connections, especially when people share the same interests. But maybe, on that cold February weekend, those thought patterns somehow managed to span the wide Atlantic. Irrespective of the degree of synchronicity, the experiment was enormous fun and gave birth to a new hybrid form of blogging ("blog-carding", perhaps) which incorporates the satisfying solidity of pen, ink, card and stamp with the ability to share the results with many people. I look forward to repeating the exercise with other of my blogger friends in the near future.

16 comments:

  1. It was enormous fun, dear friend! Perhaps we have started a trend? xx

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  2. Anonymous10:54 PM

    I think there is something to be said for your experiment. The results are interesting to no end.

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  3. If this is a trend, I like it and want to try it out myself. I'm excited to "find" your blog, now, and look forward to reading more of it!

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  4. This is an interesting experiment. I was shocked to see how many stamps she placed on the postcard. Those liberties are forty three cents each. I must take a lot of money to send things so very far especially a post card.

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  5. Larry, it cost 98 cents to send the postcard to it's destination to Alan across the Pacific. I didn't want to stand in line at the post office for exact postage, so used three of the Liberty stamps from my desk drawer!

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  6. I shall try your experiment. I shall post a card to:

    Chairman Bill
    South Glos
    UK

    and see if it arrives.

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  7. Alan, you trend-setter, you! What a fascinating exercise. I eagerly await the posting of further exchanges.

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  8. What a great experiment.

    Synchronicity is forever cropping up in the blogosphere. I suppose that because blogging on the net is another layer of personal contact between people it's yet another opportunity for coincidence to come to the fore. Coincidence is probably more common than we think. Added to this, if bloggers are generally people who are either in touch with the "zeitgeist" or readers of each other's blogs, I suppose it's not unlikely that we should think and feel similar things from time to time. Nevertheless, it's still entertaining to come across.

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  9. I see CG Jung slapping his knees and exclaiming "Synchronicity!". ;-)

    Tess brought me here. I will be back as often as time allows.

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  10. What an interesting experiment and rather a lot of similarities in the result! I look forward to more of these.

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  11. Great synchronicity, or is that serendipity. Wish I was pushing a bicycle n Paris frankly, instead of a pen in Dural

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  12. Anonymous8:32 PM

    Great experiment, A&T... you two are something else! :)

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  13. That was interesting for all kinds of reasons. The interaction also reminded me a little of 84 Charing cross road...of a bygone age worth holding on to...of sentiments, feelings, optimism, warmth and friendship.

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  14. Yes, I thought of 84 Charing Cross Road, as well!

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  15. I love it! And great postcard selections, you two!

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  16. Now that was way cool..I enjoyed your experiment! I have no doubt that you are kindred spirits! :)

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