Project Coincidence: Episode 1, Jama of Earthly Delights
by William Mallory

was sitting on my couch and thinking of the poster hanging on the wall of our living room. It is of Captain Fantastic by Elton John; the actual poster that comes with the vinyl record. We had it framed; now it hangs on our wall. I was looking at it and I thought to myself of Sgt. Pepper, and Admiral Hasley, and a what other names might coincide with Military Officers. For some reason I thought to email my Nephew who is in College now and when he was born I had given my brother a copy of the lyrics to The Garden of Earthly Delights by XTC, it was cut out and laminated all ready to go as an art-piece for the newly born. I was thinking of emailing him and telling him to look for the song on iTunes. Well, five minutes later Jess, my girlfriend walks in and sits at the computer and says to me “have you ever seen the Garden of Earthly Delights?”

    I was floored. And there on the computer is a picture of the famous painting by Hieronymus Bosch. And there we were looking at Heaven, Hell and Earth from the perspective of the a painter back in 1490. The crazy thing was when Jess brought the painting up from Wikipedia, just beneath the painting was a few other photographs of some other similar styles from the 14th to 15th centuries. There beneath the Garden of Earthly Delights was a picture of Albrecht Dürer’s Rhinoceros dated back in 1515. Jess said to me, “no way!” That picture of that Rhinoceros is on the cover of Jama Magazine (The Journal of the American Medical Association) downstairs on the porch addressed to someone who used to live in our apartment! Jess just told me she read the Rhinoceros in Kurt Vonegut’s Hocus Pocus.

    I said we’re stretching it on that one. But the fact remains what got us from A to B on this one was quite odd, and by far short a tale to tell. I mind you Coincidences are quite remarkable when measured in their magnitude. And can be said it is a call from God, an ways of communication. The odds of these are remarkable none the less. And the frequency they appear at times can be overwhelming. About a month ago I was sitting on the couch and said to myself to get up and look outside and I will see a man with a rosary in his hand. I said this to myself so I got up and looked outside my window and there was an old man with a cap on walking down my sidewalk hold a Rosary in his hands. I backed up in two seconds snapping my conscience into awake mode and looked again, and I was seeing what I was seeing. I held back from crying though I started to out of shock. But I thought again. It was Heaven I was seeing there when I thought of the Garden of Earthly Delights to begin with. I felt it compelling enough to right down this. If anymore earthquakes of mind come along I will send them out via this wave of frequency.