07.23.09
Random Patterns
During the filming last Saturday of the Kurt Angle (and Nick Nolte) movie, “Warrior,” I ran into another extra, James. We had been extras in the Eric Roberts film, “Shannon’s Rainbow.” We talked about the filming on this movie, and the experience of being an extra. I learned more about James, and found out that he is a math professor.
While we were talking, the the assistant director asked someone to pick a number at random. He was giving away prizes to the extras, as a bonus for all their hard work. And probably so they did not riot during all the down time.
James casually added, “People can’t pick a random number.”
I said, “What do you mean? It was a different number than the last ones that were picked.”
He said, “We can’t ever be truly random. We want and we seek patterns.”
I thought about his comment for a while. Mainly because I had no idea what he meant, but also I thought I could turn it into a blog post somehow. It was too profound to just leave it alone.
We do seek patterns: when we are having a bad day, we almost WANT to and NEED to see things negatively. There is a certain satisfaction in that mode of thinking, on particular days, and for particular people.
Julie Norem said this very well in her book, “The Positive Power of Negative Thinking.” If you tell someone to, “Have a bright and sunshiny day!” some people will do just that. But the other half of the population will hate you for saying such a stupid and meaningless thing.
We can equally set the pattern of our day to humor: we can look at things as not just random happenstances occurring throughout our day. We can see them as a backdrop for a life lived lite.
We can literally train our minds to see the pattern of humor, to in effect see through the lens of lightness.
There really is no randomness, get it? Now, “Get Your SHINE TogetheR!”
