Mysteries of the Unknown

MYSTERIES OF THE UNKNOWN. When I was a kid, there was a commercial on TV for some sort of book series. The catch line went, “Is it a coincidence? Or a mystery of the unknown?” Does anyone else remember this? The eerie music, the narratives about mothers knowing their children were in trouble even though they were halfway around the world… Well, lately we’ve had our very own Mysteries of the Unknown, some Alaska-style, and some, well, just mysterious. In the spirit of the coming creepy holiday, enjoy:

DIAMONDS. I have always been a strong dreamer – full color worlds with warm water and written words and people long forgotten in my waking mind. Well a few weeks ago I dreamed that my brother Chip had proposed to his girlfriend Kate with a purple diamond ring. I woke up the next morning and texted him about it, joking that perhaps I had intuited a real happening. He got back to me in amazement that no, he had not proposed with such a ring, but just that night before he and Kate had dined with a couple who had recently gotten engaged with, yes, a purple diamond. A coincidence, or…

BLOODY BROOK ROAD. I grew up in Amherst, NH on a street with a gruesome name and an awesome brook (clear, for the record) to play along. We then moved within the same town to the much more civilized "Manchester Road," preferably spoken with a snooty accent. (For those of you who know the Porn Star Name Game where you pair up the name of your first pet with the name of your childhood street to generate a fictitious porn star name, “Ruffles Manchester” has a much better ring to it. Yes – feel free to take a moment and try it yourself… strangely fun.) Anyway, this week I found myself on a road trip to Seward for work during which I befriended the wife of a coworker, Oakley. Oakley and I ended up chatting about growing up back East and we quickly determined that she had lived in New Hampshire. In Amherst. Off of Manchester Road. “The house with the red barn and the duck crossing sign?” “Yup.” Indeed, for a short while we had been neighbors. (I guess that makes us Porn Star Name Game sisters… It’s been a pleasure driving with you, Jemima Manchester!) A coincidence, or…

NATURE HEARTS. Back to my brother again. A few days after the purple diamond incident, on a camping venture in Acadia National Park, Chip snapped a photo of himself holding a heart-shaped rock and sent it to my mother. The same afternoon, while hiking in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, I snapped a picture of a heart-shaped hole in a leaf and sent it to my mother. No, we had never sent pictures of heart shaped things to her before. A coincidence, or…

A LESLIE IN ALASKA. As you’ve heard me point out again and again, the State of Alaska is humungous. Twice the size of Texas. Stretches the length of the contiguous US. Yada yada. So keep this in mind as I share about “running into” our friend Sean. Running into someone in Alaska is like finding a needle in a haystack, accidentally no less! And that’s just what happened. Team Leslie had detoured from our normal route home from work in an effort to acquire a much needed rake. (FYI the fall leaves have long since bid farewell to their branches up here and are sitting in soggy layers awaiting the coming freeze to finish the job.) As we pulled out of the hardware store lot, a man wildly waving from a car window caught our eye. Sean! Sean, whom we had lived and taught with in Yosemite. Sean, whom we had played and skied with in Oregon. Sean, who in this case, had been invited up to the resort town of Girdwood to give a company presentation and had decided to add a few days onto his trip (his first to Alaska), rent a car, and explore a bit. Although he knew we had moved to Alaska, he had no idea where we were living up here (Shocking, I know, but he had not followed the blog!) and hadn’t thought to look us up. Driving through Soldotna, only hours after getting off his plane in Anchorage, he noticed Ice Cream Newton, my frizzy hair and J’s big beard and knew he had found the proverbial needle. A coincidence, or…

Sean, back in our Oregon days.

Just for fun, if you have a recent Mystery of the Unknown to share, please add it as a comment here. To me it feels good to honor the serendipitous moments that weave through our days. And for goodness sake, let us know if you’re going to be in Alaska! We can only rely on this trend of coincidences so much…