One afternoon quite a few years ago, when “Sex and the City” was still on the air, I saw Christopher Noth — the actor who plays Carrie Bradshaw’s love interest “Mr. Big” — walking with a friend near Columbus Circle in Manhattan. He was dressed in a nice suit, more or less like the one he generally wore on the TV show.
Objectively I knew that this was “Christopher Noth, the actor”, not “Mr. Big, the character”, yet as I saw him dressed like that, with the glamorous backdrop of Manhattan all around us, part of me could not help but think I was witnessing a TV character come to life.
This morning as I was walking along in Manhattan, I found myself, for the first time in years, thinking back on that moment. Perhaps it was because this is Valentine’s Day, when many New York couples dress up and act out their romantic fantasies — their own personal brand of “Sex and the City” come to life.
Then, early this evening, just after boarding a Eighth Avenue local heading uptown, I saw a man in a suit running to catch the train as the doors were closing — he made it through the doors barely in time. It was Chris Noth himself, the embodiment of a certain fantasy of New York romance. I think I was the only passenger in that crowded subway car who recognized him.
I don’t believe in the supernatural, but seeing the man himself standing there, blessing all of those young Valentine’s couples with his presence, was way cool. Particularly on the very day I had been thinking about him.
I wonder how often that sort of thing happens.
Maybe Noth has a message for you and he hasn’t been able to give it to you yet.
When I used to walk from the subway to NYU, I would see Matthew Modine in the mornings. Over and over again. Then never again.
Yes, I’m sure that is exactly what is going on.
I admire the man’s persistence!
I have been meaning to talk to you about this. There is a lattice of causality that underlies the apparent coincidence of the material world. What Jung called “synchronicity”, but he was a fool! In this case, however, the lattice of causality involved is that the actor lives in or near your neighborhood and your hours/habits are somehow temporarily aligned and you are over the perceptual barrier (e.g. he lives in my neighborhood, I know what he looks like, oh, there he is I see him again).
However, to answer your question, there are times in my life which have some pretty weird coincidences in them. The one on my blog entitled “you must go to the river” is merely a slightly extreme example.