silent destiny

i said in a recent post that when i have random thoughts, i translate them to a title and the title stays with me until i get around to converting randomess to strongly-typed bits. i have been watching one random thought for months; but, during the {dry season} this summer i simply never found the time to let those bits flow. events have silenced the destiny of those bits, and brought a new direction of thought.

the story begins while driving (many, many times) to the office. i live with my ipod connected to me. it is a requirement for all trips; auto, aero or other. 80 gig, silver and filled with my music and photos. the thought of a trip without this companion compares to pondering life on a deserted island; pangs of lose and separation are felt at the mere consideration.

while mobile i tend to do the ipod shuffle; allowing apple’s engineers to randomly* select a play list. the little silver surfer picks the tunes as space and time move. i am amazed at how well they select the next song for my listening pleasure. in fact, i have noticed that on days when the selections on the trip to the office are especially good, the day tends to progress in a positive way. in contrast, when the frequency of hitting “next” increases, the events of the day go spiraling toward the desire to fast forward.

i have mentioned to people that i have been following the trend, and most of them appear to be skeptics. not a surprise, as i am a skeptic on most stories of premonition also. i recently heard a story of a fortune-teller who “predicted” the big easy hurricane. i smiled and did not point out that historically it was not much of a stretch to predict the southern US would be struck by a storm. there are yearly stories on prime-time news shows predicting the same; normally timed just before storm season. also, the described “premonition” had all the specific clarity of nostradamus.

but in this case, i have watched the trends and i am convinced of a correlation. i am not making a judgment on causality, just that there is a relationship between the two patterns. months ago, i was driving and considering this; and created of the title “ipod destiny”. i was smiling and in the process of imprinting the title for later recovery during the quiet gap between songs. i listened to the next song start, it was one i did not remember hearing before. i picked up my friend and looked to see what she had selected for me, as the soulful tones of lenny kravitz’s voice were recognized i read the title “destiny”. {spooky!}

i had just told someone about my ipod destiny and i was remembering the the smiles it brought. i was also looking forward to my drive into the office and the new day. as i turned the key i asked myself, how do you think the driving music (and the day) will go? considering the answer, i picked up my shimmering friend and hit the play button.

no response. i looked closer and saw the empty battery graphic. my friend must have continued to play songs as i slept, and the battery was now empty. no music; i was going to drive in silence. but, always ready to analyze, i questioned what were the implications of this? if good/bad music brought a good/bad day, what would no music at all bring in the day to come? a feeling of loss was replaced by a sense of foreboding.

as someone who watches and lives within patterns, here was a new data point. new can be exciting and enjoyable, or it can be scary and troubling. life is all about change, but surprises and things that don’t work are only sometimes found to be the best course. i drove in silence, and imprinted the new title.

as usual when i hit an issue, i have come up with a plan b. the silver ipod will be replaced in the car with its darker cousin i currently have stuffed into my guitar bag. i am not investing the personal time to improve my music skills, i might as well use the other ipod lower the risk profile of future silent driving. i will now have access to two friends, when one is found silent and empty, the other will take over and provide the songs of the day.

but, i need to resist the temptation to swap before emptiness. i cannot make a change as soon as the pattern goes negative. i doubt this will be an issue for me. there is always the hope that a quick replacement will bring you back to positive. but i understand the reality. when dealing with destiny, doing a replacement will not change the outcome. it will simply mean you have two things that need to be tracked, updated and filled when empty.

you cannot change your destiny, it doesn't matter if it's good, bad or "silent and empty".

/**************************************************************

my silver ipod sits charging while i write this post. the drive home will be filled with my music. now i just need to remember to turn it off when i get there.

* there is an internet debate over the randomness of the shuffle, belief is that favoritism is used to improve the musical selections. i will ignore the debate, and simply say ‘shuffle me baby’.

if apple knows to put luscious jackson, burnside and frank black together than i say 'why be random'.

*******/