Wilkes and Stupid and Gone with the Wind

Cluster synchronicities involve the repetition of names, numbers, and objects, usually within a short period of time. We’ve posted quite a few that deal with number clusters (11s are popular) and with names. We particularly enjoyed this cluster synchro from Johnny Walsh, who we “met” through evolver.net. It’s a layered travel synchro,  which makes it even more interesting.

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On a recent visit to my daughters in upstate New York,we watched “Gone With the Wind” on one of the cable TV stations. A main character in that great movie is Ashley Wilkes. At one point while we watched, that rogue Rhett Butler refers to him as “that stupid Ashley.” After that, whenever Mr. Wilkes appeared on the screen, the kids would yell, “Stupid Ashley!”

After the movie’s stirring climax, we retired for the night. For some pre-sleep relaxation, I opened the new “New Yorker” magazine, plus I turned on the radio. On a talk show a gentleman was plugging his book about coincidence and synchronicity. A cartoon in the magazine caught my eye. It depicted two headstones abutting each other–on the left, the deceased’s name is clearly seen as “Wilkes.” The other stone had an arrow pointing to Wilkes’ gravesite, and has emblazoned upon it “I’m With Stupid,” like the old novelty t-shirts. Just to have the cartoon/movie connection is nice, but to have a guy in the background talking about coincidences makes it a bit more savory.

And then, incredibly, this happened: On the train back to New York City, I had a seat to myself on the Syracuse-to-Albany leg of the trek. In Albany, an attractive woman in her 40’s got on the train and sidled into the empty seat next to me. She began reading the same “New Yorker” magazine I had read a couple of nights earlier. Later, we got to chatting and I asked if she saw that headstone cartoon, and she said she hadn’t. I described to her the coincidence involving a beloved movie, an amusing magazine cartoon, and an off-beat radio show.

She chuckled, if somewhat nervously, and then we both went back to our reading. It’s then that I noticed her Amtrak ticket stub on her pull-down tray in front of her. Under the PASSENGER NAME heading and her signature was her last name. The name printed on it was “Wilks.” No “e” in there like “Wilkes,” but certainly close enough.

I think she was too creeped out to tell me that her name related to my coincidence story after I had told it to her. I was a little creeped out too, I must admit, but I love it when the universe observes us instead of vice versa, and plays around with our minds a little bit.

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21 Responses to Wilkes and Stupid and Gone with the Wind

  1. Trish and Rob MacGregor says:

    New genre, indeed!

  2. Johnny says:

    GLIMMER/TRISH–
    Uh Oh, I started a new genre–Gravestone Sync! haha

  3. Trish and Rob MacGregor says:

    Glimmer – this is fascinating! Thanks for posting it.I'm bringing it forward as a post.

  4. Glimmer says:

    I was in Boston, being given a tour by my husband's good friend. I was telling him about my ancestors, saying "we're mostly southerners, but a ship was blown off course in a storm during the colonial days and a bunch of C's ended up in this area." Something like that.

    I had never been to Boston. We were in the second oldest graveyard there, the one overlooking the harbor. As I told him this story, I looked down to see a small gravestone with the words "Elijah C…. 1800 and something" the C was my last name. Not a usual last name, at all. This was obviously an ancestor.

    We could not believe it. My husband's friend has added this story and the grave to his little tour!

  5. Trish and Rob MacGregor says:

    Aleksandar -the synchros just keep piing up, don't they? Love this one.

  6. Aleksandar Malecic says:

    Ellen's Acres.

  7. Aleksandar Malecic says:

    Today I saw an episode of the cartoon Ellen's World. In her first imaginary adventure, she and a monkey found a huge jewel. In the second adventure, she traveled in a boat to Louisiana. Really.

  8. Trish and Rob MacGregor says:

    I just left a comment on it. Love that story.

  9. Natalie says:

    Just put a name /birthday one on mine. 🙂

  10. Natalie says:

    Great post and subsequent comments. 🙂

  11. Trish and Rob MacGregor says:

    Jama – wow. This person sounds like a parallel self or something! Four common areas. Definitely qualifies as a synchro in my book!

  12. JamaGenie says:

    When this kind of synchro happens to or around me, I just smile, look skyward and say "Good one", for I believe, like another here, that the Universe is simply arranging the similar events we call "synchros" to mystify us.

    btw, I haven't fallen off the planet, only out-of-state for a couple of weeks with limited internet service. While there, I was introduced to a woman a bit older than I, but whose first name is only one letter different than mine, her maiden name is four letters and rhymes with mine (also 4 letters), our birthdays are 4 days apart, and…until they retired, she and her husband ran a furniture refinishing business, while one of my hobbies was re-upholstering furniture. That's as far as we got with commonalities, but quite enough to qualify as "synchronicity", don't you think?

  13. GYPSYWOMAN says:

    i'd heard the obama on-hold story too –

    and ya'll know ya'll are talkin' bout my home, dontcha, suga?

  14. Trish and Rob MacGregor says:

    Huffingtonpost now say obama is putting offshore drilling on hold:
    https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/30/new-offshore-drilling-pro_n_558313.html

    You're right, vicki, it's another synchro. Hurricane season starts officially on June 1. I've been feeling pretty positive about the season – given how cold it was in florida this winter. Now I'm uneasy again!

  15. Vicki D. says:

    And you chose today to put this post up, another synchro.

    Gone with the Wind – we are also in
    hurrican season – I wonder what else will befall this area as it already has with tornadoes.

    It feels like these two posts have a definite link, interesting.

  16. Trish and Rob MacGregor says:

    Aleksandar – you came up with two remarkable synchros! The fact that Napoleon sold Louisiana today – when the oil spill reaches the coast of Louisiana and this Gone with the Wind connection. We'd had this post scheduled for today for at least a week or 10 days.

  17. Aleksandar Malecic says:

    When these things happen to me, I usually expect more. For this reason I looked a few minutes ago Gone with the Wind in Wikipedia, thinking "there must be something about Louisiana" (your previous post and also my comments there). Brett and Scarlett have had a honeymoon in New Orleans, of course. You know – gone with the wind, changes, new era and stuff.

  18. GYPSYWOMAN says:

    fabulous story, isn't it!!! love that it partly took place on a train, giving it a whole different connotation!

  19. 67 Not Out (Mike Perry) says:

    That one made me smile.

  20. Aleksandar Malecic says:

    When these things happen to me, I am terrified. I mean, it seems that my unconventional behavior and thinking on my part of a hologram moves the rest of it.

  21. Vicki D. says:

    Whoa…two strangers on a train…

    This is one of those synchros that you say to yourself later after you share it, because it is so strange you have to share it, what on earth could this possibly mean? What am I supposed to learn from this or am I supposed to learn anything except that life is a mystery.

    Of course the writer part of me immediately thought that this would be a neat beginning to a story. I love the part where he listened to "an off-beat radio show".

    Thanks for a fun synchro after the oil synchro. Now I need to get some Excedrin for this headache.

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