The SYNCHRO Jacket

If a picture tells a thousand words, then this one is an epic novel.  It is such a defining, pivotal and personally uplifting moment - a powerful life-affirming Synchro, to say the least.

Some background:
In the fall of 2007 I started, www.SynchroProject.org, a non-profit venture, dedicated to the study of synchronicity.  Writing extensively, I began developing a language to describe the various types of synchronicities, and coined the term SYNCHRO, short for a synchronistic event --a coincidental experience perceived as significant  -C.G.Jung defined as, “meaningful coincidence unlikely to have occurred by chance.”  I wondered why events that are so incredible, statistically improbable and extraordinary are so easily forgotten within hours.  What mechanism erases these anomalous experiences from our consciousness?  In an attempt to wire these events back into our long term memory it occurred to me that photos would be one way to tag an event, reinforce and track each Synchro; (and its subsequent threads) ideas, which caught the attention of James Clement van Pelt, co-founder of Yale University Divinity School, IRST (Initiative in Religion, Science & Technology).
 
Back to the Synchro in the photo:
In Jan. 2008, I had been diagnosed with a rare and usually fatal cancer.  The remarkable chain of synchronicity laced events, which lead to this moment are extraordinary, a very long story I'll save for another time.  This was truly the defining moment though.  It was a very cold January day, having just left Yale New Haven Hospital pre-admissions, four days before a scheduled "all day-life threatening" (radical neck bisection) surgery, to register and to submit my Living Will and DNR (do not resuscitate directive in case I was brain dead).  My mom was so upset and crying, because as any Mom believes, your kids are not supposed to go before you.  This was a sad day for her...her daughter had a rare and incurable cancer that only a small number of people ever get...some genetic flaw...was it her fault somehow...you know the drill.  Anyway, I digress from the actual Synchro at hand, but it is critical to understand the context in which the event takes place, for no amount of telling, can ever impress upon the reader the full impact, the significance, the elation...the pure extraordinary power of walking into a Walgreens across from the hospital and seeing a guy wearing a jacket that said SYNCHRO IN HUGE LETTERS!  It was an outstanding affirmation that my life had a purpose beyond the surgery and that direction, was made crystal clear.

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