From Rob: I’m working on a novel set during World War II that involves the theft of priceless paintings and sculptures both in the U.S. and Europe. I’d just finished a scene in which one of the characters had obtained fake IDs and was walking with a fake limp for a particular reason that’s too lengthy to explain here.
I took a break, turned on the news and there was story comparing some of the actions of Trump supporters including elected officials with the actions of the Watergate plumbers from 1970. The name plumbers came about because the original task of this small group of Nixon supporters was to stop leaks about how the American public was lied to about the Vietnam War. Specifically, the plumbers initially targeted Daniel Elsberg, a State Department official, by breaking into his psychiatrist’s office looking for evidence that Elsberg might be crazy.
What caught my attention was that Gordon Liddy, in preparing for the break in, had obtained fake IDs and, for some reason, he walked with a fake limp. Of course, seeing that report so close in both time and similarity to what I had just written sent the synchronicity bell ringing loudly in my head. Fake IDs, fake limp in my world; fake IDs, fake limp in the news world coming together.
As always, the question of what do with such meaningful coincidences tells us it’s a subjective matter. It’s also a very personal matter in that undoubtedly no one else experienced that particular synchronicity. So it was a personal, little mind-blowing experience, which for me signals I’m on the right path with the story, but also importantly that there’s a bigger picture of reality that exists outside of our everyday world of cause and effect. And for a moment, I got to come in to touch it.
