“You get what anyone gets – You get a lifetime.” – Death – “The Sandman“
Before I make you Google again, the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon is somewhat similar to a deja vu. Except, instead of your brain tricking you into thinking you’d been somewhere before, it makes you aware of things that were always around you but you might not have noticed. It’s something I enjoy pointing out to friends and family.
It’s a truism that people who work with machines (and the instructions that drive them) are a superstitious lot that tend to personify our creations. Having muttered incantations and curses to no one in particular while chasing yet another bug, I’m no exception. As such, I like to embrace these superstitions and the cool moments that follow from them.
This little experience started with a trip to see Jumanji (the remake/reboot) this past weekend. Really fun movie and I do recommend it. There’s an interesting message scene where the characters compare having a limited number of lives within the game world to the fact that we ‘really only have one life’ and the responsibility to spend it wisely. This is something awfully deep for a recycled movie where the leads spend a lot of their time making dick jokes (literally).
Queue the next day where I’m idly citing the perky goth trope and am reminded immediately of Death of The Endless and her oft repeated benediction, cited above. This character comes from a series frequently labelled as a masterpiece which has spawned entire universes from its base material. It’s fascinating that one of its themes shared common space with a completely unrelated movie, at least in my head.
What does any of this mean? Not much. Just the mind making correlations where none really exist. Still, I enjoy the small thrill of making these arbitrary connections where none were probably intended. It’s not like anyone owns the idea of wise living or wasting time. But it is a fun realization to feel both common and special in the same breath, with all of your decisions, experiences and time reduced to a single unit.
As always, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to add them here or address them to john@benedettitech.com.