To speak into the Universe...

"God may be laughing, but we're still planning." (Eric Bogosian)

If I speak my innermost hopes and desires into the Universe, will it laugh? Might something lurking unseen in the wings come haunt me forever? Or is that my only hope of making them into a solidified, hard-boiled reality?

What do you think?

I know some people who are extremely wary of speaking of their plans, for fear they might jinx the future. Apparently, it's something called the illusion of correlation - the impression that two distinct events are related when they aren't, in fact. It's just happenstance, though I don't think we should so easily dismiss it as mere superstition (as a quick Internet search seems to suggest).

Can you telling someone about a hope/dream for the future/plan actually prevent it from happening? If I look back on my own life, it doesn't seem likely. While I've noted (like all of us) some eerie coincidences (if they can be called that at all), for the most part, things I planned on happening did happen according to my plans, regardless of whether I told them to somebody or not.

I tend to tell. It comes naturally to me. I'm also a big believer in setting your sights on something, on acting with intention, not merely wishing. And I realize it's just as ludicrous, maybe, to convince myself that if I talk about a plan, it's any more or less likely to come to fruition. But I think it will.

I think something happens psychologically because when I tell someone of a hope, I'm turning it into subtly more than just a hope. It slowly becomes a plan. A storyline that I have associated with myself, with others' perception of me, which makes me more likely to pursue it and go down that path.

If, on the other hand, I keep things to myself for fear of jinxing them, I've found, no one's any wiser if they fail to materialize. Nobody and nothing holds me accountable, and that leaves room for fears and insecurities to stop me in my tracks.

It's interesting to consider why you're afraid of sharing hopes and dreams, because often (in the cases I know of, for sure) it comes from earlier times when you shared some plan or desire for the future and when it didn't go accordingly, you were mocked or teased for it. Or perhaps your failure was greeted as self-evident. Of course you couldn't succeed, because failure is guaranteed. That sort of thing. Some people are like that. Parents. Partners. And it's good to keep an eye on such talk because we unwittingly internalize this sort of expectations, and I do think that can very much impact how things turn out for you.

If you're going through life expecting that you're a failure and second-guessing and being quietly convinced it's not going to work out for you, it often doesn't.

Are you a teller? Or are you scared of jinxing your future?

How could I let a Tuesday go by without some tunes? Cheerio, @ablaze! :)

Giving in, not giving up
Maybe I didn't care еnough
I wish I could let you know somehow

There's no one like these guys. No one who has (for me) been able to better breach the gap between this life and the next. I didn't like this song when I first heard it. I thought it was too happy, didn't pay attention to the message. Should've known better than to doubt these guys, though. It's one of those bands who's moved a long way from its darker more metally roots, and the more I live, the more I appreciate the need to put out a positive message despite the terrible things that happen.

Even though I said all the things that mattered most
While I held on tight to the end of the rope
I could keep you close, but I couldn't keep you here

She said, "Stay away from that woman
She's evil and no good for you"
I went back to the fortune teller
"Can you please, tell me her name?"

Definitely one of the sexiest songs I've heard in a long, long time.

This has got to be the single best version of this song.

If you get a minute
You can find a whole day and think

It doesn't come easy to me, finding that minute, that necessary detachment, particularly in matters of the heart. I tend to get sucked in by my emotions, by other people's worlds, so I gotta yank myself away. Lest I be yanked apart.

It’s over now
It’s over now
That love you’re in
Is all fucked up
That love is done