Synchronicities

Jane and Clare and I get together for movie nights now and then. Clare has a big-screen television and I bring the DVD and we always have a wonderful time watching and taking breaks to discuss the film. One night recently Clare and I were watching a film set in Venice, Jane was away, and we got talking about the many beautiful movies made in Venice in recent years --- Venice is the world's oldest movie production set anyway --- and we decided to have our own Venice film festival. We were watching Casanova with Heath Ledger and Jeremy irons (who is absolutely hilarious when he does comedy) and I mentioned that I love the movie Dangerous Beauty which is about a young Venetian girl learning to become a courtesan. It stars Catherine McCormack who I think is one of the most watchable young actresses I've ever seen.

So we got this idea that we would have a "putanesca" night. I would whip up a batch of putanesca, the famous sauce allegedly originated in the bordellos of Naples, and watch Dangerous Beauty. Clare was unfamiliar with that sauce so I was telling her about its succulent but strong flavors of tuna and anchovies, tomatoes and onions, capers and black olives and lots and lots of garlic. Yum. A good batch gives a girl the strength to keep working all night long --- or so they say.

Yesterday Jane returned and, while we were yakking on the phone, I told her about the planned putanesca party. She thought it was a great idea. We decided to go out for dinner and she said to meet her at the Causeway because, now that the tourists are gone, we can get a table at a reasonable hour.

The Causeway is the best restaurant in town for fish and seafood but in the summer you can forget about getting a table there. Whenever I go in I always check out the Specials board on the wall. Last night the first item on the board was "Swordfish Putanesca". My jaw dropped. In all my years of going there I never saw that before. Naturally I ordered it. It was superb. First of all swordfish is, in my opinion, the best thing to come out of the ocean. I will take it over lobster or scallops any day (oysters run a close second). They served a large, thick, juicy, perfectly grilled swordfish steak smothered in garlic, tomatoes, onions, capers, and black olives. It was heaven. Jane and i remarked all through dinner on what a strange coincidence it was that it should be on the menu after we had just talked about putanesca earlier in the day.

Later I got to thinking about the fact that there have been a lot of strange coincidences in my life lately. Gordon recommends a book to me and a few days later I watch a documentary that turns out to be about that book. The documentary is, coincidentally, narrated by Gabriel Byrne (Okay, I am aware that I have mentioned him in four blogs lately --- I'm obsessed. I'll get over it) who wrote the book, Pictures in My Head, which I am listening to as an audio book. In the book he tells a wonderful story about the Irish "travelers" who were the subject of another book I just finished reading, The Nature of Water and Air by Regina McBride. He also mentions that he loves the English romanticists, especially Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights which I have also blogged about lately. Well, at least I know why I find him fascinating. He also tells a delicious story about a night spent in Venice with Richard Burton.

The thing is coincidences happen every day but sometimes a pattern begins to emerge and I believe when that happens something is beginning. Last night at dinner Jane was talking about Rilke and I thought of his passage in Letters to A Young Poet where he writes "you must think that something is happening to you that life has not forgotten you, that it holds you in its hand and will not let you fall." I think Jung was right --- that there are energetic patterns in the universe and when one begins to form for you it is wise to pay attention. Something is happening to you --- something is beginning.

I have decided that I want to take the week off between Christmas and New Years and just stay here and write. I want to polish up Each Angel Burns (the title of that comes from Rilke too) and get to work on my next novel. I have an outline started and I think it will be a contemporary Gothic with much romanticism and, well, who knows? Maybe a dish or two of putanesca. I think I'm on to something here.

Thanks for reading.