chance and symbolism

Everything for a reason, everything with a purpose.

The other night I had a particularly depressing time on the town. The beginning of the 4th of July, around 1am. I got so flustered that I changed my dinner order to take-out, and sat there debating whether to pay cash or credit. I counted my cash and put my card on the table. Finally went with cash. And I was so done, that I just left the cash on the table (in Mew York City!), walked to the front desk, and told the waitress "I left it on the table" as I fled the scene of the crime.

he next morning I counted my cash. Something like $75 total, about $20 of that in 1s. I couldn't find my ATM card but didn't think much of it... until I had spent almost all my cash on a new pair of shoes, a new shirt, 2 slices of pizza and a drink. I had $8 left. And spent 30 minutes searching for my ATM card in vain.

I made it through the night through the kindness of strangers. The club gate girl who slipped me in, the girl who bought me bottled water.

Come the next morning, I had a single $2 bill and began to strategize how I might transform that and a metro card into a passage to the airport the next morning. It felt like Burning Man all over again, in a way.

Anyways, waltzed over to the restaurant, and asked the maitre de about a lost card. She was super sweet, checked the office, asked the bartender, even called the manager. No luck. I told the bartender "I lost my green card." He said "That sucks." And I replied, "Good News, Bad News... Who knows?"

Back to the homestead all 35 feet south, a renewed effort to find my card. It *will be* here. I *will* find it. A mere five minutes later:

bending three magazines (with a sneaking suspiscion), I sense something rigid inside one of them. Hmmmm... I grab them by their spines and shake. Low and behold, what falls out of, but my little green ATM card. Right behind the flap of "quiet your mind... 5 poses for inner calm," followed closely by "Transform your life with yoga of the heart"

This was a powerful message atop the Ram Dass Be Here Now, and Bhaghavan Dass' It's Here Now (Are You?) reading of the night prior. Slowly, but surely, a picture is forming...