I saw TJ downtown today, just a few minutes ago, I was driving up 2nd Street, not really sure where I was going, either Squirrels or Sunnyside-Up, maybe The Beanery. As I drove by the corner, I tried to look into The Beanery, tried to see if it was crowded, specifically the seats by the window, not for the view -- there is no view, not unless cars and pedestrians and whatnot count as view, and for me they do not -- that's where the power points are, the plugs for my laptop, the means for sitting for longer than the Powerbook's battery life of about ninety minutes. But I don't need that much time this afternoon, don't have that time free to sit and drink coffee or beer and Beanery is not my favorite, it was a quick look, a glance with more concern for possibly causing some kind of accident than for a seat by the powered window, glance and then look ahead, drive safe.

Which is when I saw TJ's truck, his name on the side, business name in bright red letters against the white of his little truck's canopy, and there was TJ right there, carrying what turned out to be an empty screen door frame, going to get the screen replaced and since he was right there, not just his truck but him too, I quickly pulled into the parking space next to his, called out his name, jumped out of my car, diagonal parking is great for quick safe stops, called his name and went to talk to him.

I still goggle at how life seems to provide these moments. Maybe it's a function of living in a small town, 50,000 of us crowded into a square you can walk across in half-an-hour, no place is much further away than 10 minutes by car, you can figure you're going to bump into someone you know almost anywhere, the odds are that if you are involved in life, if you are active, and God knows involved certainly qualifies much of my life, the odds that I will bump into someone meaningful are probably smaller than not. But I'm not one to take the events of my life and write them off as mere luck or just the random roll of the dice. I also don't think I'm being guided or led, not by stars nor angels nor Grandfather God, my life is not being rewarded or punished by any form of karma or kismet. I do like the idea of synchronicity, although I may not understand it very well, not in its classical or academic sense, more that people get drawn together by need when they are open to that possibility. Perhaps it's just persepctive, or an openness to everyday ordinary possibilities; I don't care. I don't take the good things in my life for granted, I try not to take them for granted.

So I bumped into TJ, we talked, I figured out something necessary, a next step I needed and didn't know I needed, I provided TJ with some next steps and opportunities he didn't know he needed, and this enormous project of fixing the world slipped another step along. This is a good thing. Today's good thing, one of today's many possible good things. Very cool.