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Serendipity Day.

I took a “serendipity day” today, that is, a day where I set out with the intention of letting life happen. I haven’t done it in a while, and it felt really good. I had only two “hard points” to the day–go to church in the morning, and a house dinner in the evening. Aside from that, all bets were off, except that I expected my friend Steve to drop by sometime in the afternoon. I would take life as it came, and avoid stalls by putting myself out in the open, daring something to happen. Around here, this usually means walking around Wheaton until either a) I run into someone interesting or b) I see something that piques my curiosity, and investigate.

The trick is to balance the passive response of “going with the flow” and the active response of seeking out whatever looks interesting. It’s like judo for the soul, rejecting the static for the fluid, embracing the momentum of the day and turning it to your own ends. So when Steve showed up after church, instead of staying at the house like we usually do, I suggested walking over to downtown. We walked around aimlessly, I bought some coffee, and had a great conversation about nothing in particular. Then he left to go play Ultimate with his church group, and I looped back on downtown for another pass.

I had been disappointed with my first cup of coffee, from La Spiazza, the indy coffeehouse in downtown. I like the idea of the indy coffeehouse scene, but here, reality always seems to fall short of the mystique. Frankly, the coffee and the service are hit-or-miss. So, now with nothing else better to do, I stopped by Starbucks for coffee #2. An unusual move for me, given the expense, but one learns not to ask too many questions of oneself on Serendipity Day. Instead of sitting inside, like I usually do at Starbucks, I sat outside at a table on the sidewalk and read. It was a beautiful day, and the sparrows were frolicking all about, hopping up on the table and the chairs and ruffling their feathers and generally being little ne’er-do-wells and ruffians.

After some time, the impulse came to leave, so I left. I walked around downtown some more, and ended up over by the old National St. Louis University campus, which has been fenced off and will be converted to condominiums in the near future. This little university always mystified me, and now that it had closed down and abandoned, I cased the perimeter, finding several good openings in the fence. I plan to go back some evening this week, after dark, and see what I can see.

From there, I walked by the new Wheaton Park District mini-golf and skate park facility, and on an impulse, asked the attendant about the fee structure, and found out how to get a Park District membership. Useful knowledge.

Now, in all this wandering, my ultimate hope was to run into someone interesting, but nobody had presented themselves. Feeling my inspiration start to drain, I decided to head back home.

I had just gotten to the corner of Washington and my street, Franklin, who should drive by but my friend Joel, who immediately pulled over to say “hi”. He said he was out running errands, and would I like to ride along? Ah-ha–precisely what I had been fishing for all afternoon, for Joel is an interesting person. (Some day, remind me to relate to you the story of the presentation that he, Mike, and I once had to put together for Modern American Literature.)

We went back to his place, which was nearer by than I had expected, and I met his room-mates, who are also interesting people. Then Joel and I decided that we should go over to Lawson Field and throw a frisbee around. Nevermind the stiff wind that had been gusting around all day.

We did so, and the wind was strong, but we’re both pretty good throwers, so we managed okay. It was at this point, while emptying my pockets, that I discovered my cell phone was missing. After making sure that it wasn’t anywhere on the field where I had been running around, we put it off, citing lack of evidence and further desire to throw. Finally though, we got tired (throwing in the wind takes a lot of energy–you have to put plenty of spin and power into the throw to keep it stable, and the other guy ends up having to chase it anyway). We went back to his apartment, and I borrowed Joel’s phone to call my phone and see if anyone might pick up.

As an aside, this is an excellent thing to do if you find you’ve lost your cell phone. People usually answer, and then it’s quite easy to find the phone–you ask the person where they are, and then you say, “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.” (I’ve also found that when people find a cell phone, they often try calling some of your contacts, especially the one labeled “Mom and Dad.” This doesn’t always do a whole lot of good, because your parents can’t call you to let you know where your phone is, and they just end up worrying.) I’ve become quite adept at finding my phone when I lose it. The first time, it took several days to find it. Last time, it took 12 hours. Today, it took an hour, and most of that was from my own delay.

Anyway, I called my phone, and of course someone answered. It was one of the barristas at Starbucks. One of the cuter ones, actually. Unfortunately, she wasn’t at the counter when I came to pick it up, but ah well, that’s Serendipity Day for you. It’s as much about missed opportunities as it is about the unexpected and circumstancial.

I made it back in perfect time to make my vegetable dish for house dinner. Another serendipitous endeavor, for I had made no plans for it, and couldn’t afford to buy anything. I made do with the materials at hand–frozen corn, green onions, olive oil, and a spice rack. The results garnered an excellent review from the housemates.

And then another of my housemates showed up with all six Star Wars movies on DVD (yes, all six), so we watched A New Hope, and I’m planning to fit the rest of the series in this week, one a day. And now, I’m sitting here at the keyboard, writing about my serendipitous day, and thinking about going to bed.

I think I’ll do that, for one doesn’t ask oneself too many questions on Serendipity Day. Good night, then, and I hope you’ve enjoyed the story of my day. If you didn’t enjoy it, I recommend you try it for yourself sometime, because that’s the only way to get the full effect. Just set off some day and let life happen, only putting yourself in environments and only taking actions that might lead to something interesting. I swear to you, it’ll help you see life from a new perspective.

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