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At the news station where I work, we have sounded animations that basically introduce various and sundry segments of the show. They 'signal' what's ahead: the weather animation signals the weather segment; the sports animation signals the sports segment; the breaking news animation signals breaking news; the show open signals the beginning of the show itself.

That got me to thinking about the significance of signals. I mean, sometimes we don't get signals, but things happen anyway, don't they! Sometimes after a huge event happens that we thought was unexpected, we realize the signals were all around us all along and we just didn't pay attention... like say, in the case of 9/11.

Sometimes, there's nothing but signal: like the passing away of one of the 20th and 21st century's most significant and influential voices, Pope John Paul II. His death signals the end of an era, and the start of a new one. A signal not unlike the changing of the guard that keeps watch over Buckingham Palace, or any other Royal Family, although with quite a bit more pomp and circumstance involved. His funeral and burial will signal that it's time for us to let go and move on with our lives, those of us who find ourselves so profoundly affected by this. And really, what can you say about a signal that draws over 4 million people to witness, and pay last respects to!

And then what about those times when you do nothing but wait and wait and wait for a signal, please, God, anything, just let him/her call me -- ! But all you get is ... no signal. The silence becomes the signal.

It seems like signals sometimes are more important than whatever they're signaling. Sometimes. Except for the times when they're not, and that's usually when a signal is most needed -- when they're most ignored.

And then there's the signals we send out: "Ich bin in Eile." ("I'm in a hurry.") "I'm not interested." "You are cute and I want to get to know you better." "I'm PMS-ing so you better STAY AWAY!!"

And then there are the false signals -- the "boy who cried wolf" signals.

Tornado sirens.


Announcements that all the votes have been counted.

The sun rising.

A woman going into labor.

Dates on the calendar.

Babies being born.

Popes dying.


Totally changing gears here.

Does anyone else think it's weird to have what can only be described as prophetic-types of thoughts???

It has been happening to me quite frequently lately. I don't consider myself to be any sort of medium, much less a prophet -- please -- but I am telling you, I was thinking about the entry I'd make in Live Journal today, and thinking about what song I'd put in the "music I'm listening to" field.

The song that popped into my head, for no apparent reason, was The Police's "Message In a Bottle". That was earlier today, before I ever got to work.

Well, guess who's on Jimmy Kimmel tonight performing that song???

Here's some things you should know about me: I don't listen to the radio, so I didn't get that song from listening to the radio. I was at the tanning salon today which does broadcast the radio, and I heard only recent music before popping my own CD -- which has *no* Police and/or Sting music on it -- into the bed I was using.

The music I've been listening to lately is NOT The Police OR Sting; it's actually a bunch of stuff I've never heard before. None of it shows any discernible Police/Sting influence to it, that I can tell.

What is with these ... Oh my God, I was about to write synchronicities, as in, what is it with these strange synchronicities??? (the title of one Police album, in case you didn't know)

I'm not kidding, this is really freaking me out! Am I just in tune with this world in a way that most people not working in the television news business are not? Or what??? I am just not prophetic; this kind of thing just doesn't happen to me. It makes me wonder, what does it mean??? Is this something I'm supposed to be paying attention to??? Am I supposed to do something with this information??

I mean, here's the thing: I don't even know it's prophetic or synchronous until after it happens! Like, I didn't know that thinking about putting The Police's "Message In a Bottle" on my LJ was significant until I look up and --

-- and that's the other thing: I just don't watch Jimmy Kimmel, or any late night television!!! Why tonight???

Frankly, I'm skeptical it means anything significant, to tell you the truth. It's not like I'm seeing car accidents before they happen, or anything like that. I think I'm just so incredibly sensitive to the cyclical nature of life that I just sense these things. I mean, there *was* some rhyme and reason, I guess, in picking "Message In a Bottle": I just haven't heard them lately, and I really like The Police/Sting. One of my favorite songs of all time ever is Sting's "Fortress Around Your Heart". Check out these lyrics:

"Under the ruins of a walled city
Crumbling towers in beams of yellow light
No flags of truce, no cries of pity
The siege guns had been pounding through the night
It took a day to build the city
We walked through its streets in the afternoon
As I returned across the fields I'd known
I recognised the walls that I once made
I had to stop in my tracks for fear
Of walking on the mines I'd laid
And if I've built this fortress around your heart
Encircled you in trenches and barbed wire
Then let me build a bridge
For I cannot fill the chasm
And let me set the battlements on fire"

They're just so beautiful, I love that song. Actually I love the whole album, The Dream of the Blue Turtles.

Sting and The Police just had a sound like no other band, and have thus proven themselves classics, because no other band sounds like them now. No doubt you hear the influence, but The Police are one of a kind.

Huge tangent there. Anyway, I guess maybe the epiphanical nature of these synchronicities I've been having lately are maybe just for my cognitive enjoyment, rather than anything truly earth-shattering. It's not like I'm having dreams telling me the exact time of death for the Pope weeks before it happens. In other words, I think all this "meaning" really means nothing in the grand scheme of things. Until I'm told otherwise. :)


Anyway, I think I'm onto something significant with this whole signals bit. You can expect more ponderings at a later time. And please, feel free to add your own thoughts on this topic, I'm curious to know what ya'll are thinkin out there...

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