Small World on #AWiderWorld Day

For several months I've been taking part in the #JukeBoxFridayNight music sharing event on Mastodon. There's a theme that changes every week and the song or music video you post is supposed to match the theme in some way. This week's theme was #AWiderWorld and the idea was to share music from all over the world instead of the usual mass market stuff from a handful of countries. But in a bizarre twist that would rival the best of Hollywood, the theme of a wider world ended up reminding how small the world can be, too.

As I said on Mastodon in my post for "a wider world", I'll be the first to admit that my music collection doesn't contain much stuff from the far corners of the globe. I had no idea what I was going to share because, off the top of my head, I couldn't think of any artists from somewhere other than the US. I could think of artists from other countries that made it big globally, including in the US. But without looking at my library, nothing jumped out right away that seemed like a good fit.

My Friday morning plan was something like this: get to work, knock out any emails that arrived since I left, and do my JukeBoxFridayNight post.

Sorry boss.

As I was scanning down the list of artists in my collection, I came across Sigur Rós. Of course! Sigur Rós! I hadn't thought about Sigur Rós in years. I was sooo into them years ago and for some reason that I couldn't recall this morning, I'd just stopped listening to them. Duh. How could I have completely forgot about Sigur Rós? Hoppípolla would be a PERFECT addition to JukeBoxFridayNight.

I make my post and listen to the song a couple of times back-to-back just to soak up the nostalgia. I'm telling myself I really need to dig back into their catalog this weekend and bring them back into rotation. But as the morning went on, I started to feel weird about the song. I couldn't put my finger on why, but when I listened to it once more later, I didn't have the initial burst of joy at hearing it again that I'd had just a couple of hours later.

It was bizarre.

By noon I was craving a drink that wasn't water or a Monster, so I decided to run up the stairs to the next floor and visit the cafe there for a beverage with bubbles in it. Champagne would have been nice, but I'd have to settle for a Diet Coke. I was looking down at my phone, playing the slow burn game I'm obsessed with these days (more on that another time). Thankfully, though, I looked up just as I came to the entrance of the cafe.

To my absolute and immediate shock, and then horror, someone I hadn't seen in over 15 years - and had no desire to ever see again - was standing right there looking in a cooler of bottled water. They don't live around here anymore so there was no reason for me to ever expect to see them again. But there they were. In my building, where I work. Out of all the places in the world to be, we both ended up in the exact same place at the exact same time.

Normally I think the Universe gets a chuckle out of bending me over, but somehow, someway, I managed to turn around and start walking back the other way before I was spotted. Lame as fuck? Yeah. Also my gut reaction? Yeah. It was. And one of the things I've learned over the years is to listen to my gut more. It's not always right, but it's right more often than not.

Tonight I was sitting on the back porch watching the dogs run around while scrolling Mastodon on my phone. Someone else's #JukeBoxFrightNight post for the wider world theme reminded me of the song I posted. I played Hoppípolla again, hoping to dig the reason for my unease around it out of the parts of my memory that are slowly disappearing. I tried to really focus on that time of my life and what was going on.

I remembered I was doing photography during the time I was into Sigur Rós. That triggered a spark that reminded me about the photography blogger who used a Sigur Rós song in one of his posts, introducing me to their music. The blog memory then jumped to a vague memory of listening to them with someone else all the time. Kevin was in the chair next to me, so I asked him if he was ever into Sigur Rós. The strange look on his face and "huh?" retort were the answer I needed. Wasn't him that used to dig Sigur Rós with me back in the day. And then it hit me.

It was the same person I'd seen and ducked away from earlier in the day.

The Universe is supposed to be infinite and apparently there's a chance that an infinite number of other universes - also infinite - might exist on top of ours. That any coincidences or synchronicities ever occur is shocking. How many things in an infinitely infinite number of infinite universes have to align for one coincidence to occur, let alone two?

Not to use an over-used phrase, but what are the fucking odds that on the very same day that a music game, designed to remind me of how big the world is, leads to an artist that I once enjoyed with a person I haven't seen or thought about in ages... who then just so happens to end up at the exact same place in the infinitely infinite universe as me? The world is certainly very wide, but it's also really damn small sometimes.

And crazy.

And also a little sad.

Because now that I've recalled why Sigur Rós was giving me a weird vibe, I won't be digging back into their catalog to revel in the nostalgia. Some feelings are better left in the past, even if that means sacraficing a good tune or two.