Climb Aboard!

Last Wednesday, I went and saw Robot vs. Dinosaur cast mates Nat and Geoff in their 2-man show ("Crassus") at The Pub Theater. As I was parking my bike outside, I ran into my friend Neil, who was also seeing the show, and we went in to get tickets. We both knew the girl working the ticket booth and when she said she didn't have a stamp for upstairs entry, we asked if she'd make us a personalized drawing for our access pass. She agreed. Then we put on a spin on it. I would whisper to her something to draw on Neil's hand and he would accept it without looking at it. He would do the same for me. (I trust Neil not to draw a huge cock and balls on my hand.) After she finished both drawings, we counted to three and showed each other our drawings.

A bizarre thing happened. We had suggested complimentary drawings for each other. On Neil's hand, I had asked Sherra to draw a pirate in a boat and the sea is made of hearts. On my hand, Neil had asked her to write the phrase "Climb aboard!" The phrase was the perfect caption for the drawing. In our short conversation beforehand we hadn't discussed anything related to pirates, but for some reason the sea/ships were on both of our minds. In improv, we call that "group mind"; it's what happens when two people are listening and paying attention on another level. It's not MY idea or YOUR idea, it's the idea we've decided on together...without ever even speaking. 

I don't believe that there is actual magic like what Dumbledore does. I wish there was - can I get an alohomora up in here? But I do believe in the power of things we don't see. All those things that are happening between people, between objects and even ideas. There's no empty space in the world; even an empty space is filled with air. Everything has a weight, a consistency, and an energy. It's always exciting when things align and you have those serendipitous moments, even when it's as small as hand-drawings at a late-night show.


P.S. More proof of weird group-mind: two months ago I was thinking I really wanted to try some new music. My friend Trevor is a mine for good tunes. I thought I'd ask him for some suggestions but got distracted at work before I could ever send the email request. An hour later, a playlist showed up in my Spotify inbox from Trevor. We had never before exchanged music playlists like this before.  Brains are talkin' ya'll!