X-Files Submission #1

su·per·nat·u·ral  /ˌso͞opərˈnaCH(ə)rəl/

Adjective: (of a manifestation or event) Attributed to some force beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature.

Noun: Manifestations or events considered to be of supernatural origin.

Synonyms: preternatural - unearthly - weird – miraculous

Those who have spent any amount of time with us are aware that this word sums up all- too- many experiences in my family. I just smile and appreciate that scientific understanding apparently hasn’t caught up with the laws of our particular nature. I don’t begin to understand how or why myself, but neither of those reasons seem to make any difference. It just “is.” I could go on and on (and on) with stories, but will just tell you one for now, as it popped into my mind today:

Back in college, I knew a guy named Jason (who was actually John’s fraternity brother, and one of the reasons I met John in the first place-but that’s not part of this story. At least I think it’s not.) Jason and I had a lot in common, sharing creative interests in theater and art. We also happened to work at the same park, in an after-school camp. One day, we were sitting around the office, joking about physically unique “oddities”, or something like that. I don’t really remember why, maybe there had been people with strange talents on Johnny Carson the night before.

I always had very even, tan skin, with not a freckle in sight (so, of course I wistfully wished for freckles my whole life) except for one spot on my left forearm. On this arm was a perfect square of four dark freckles, and three freckles vertically rising up from the corner and bending, that looked exactly like the Little Dipper. You could take a pen and connect the dots and see it, which of course I have done. (Side note: as I have happily sunned myself like a lizard on a rock over the years, eventually, um, “freckles”-go ahead, call them age spots. See what happens!-  have begun to fill in the open space around my Little Dipper. I like to think that it is the “mother ship” gradually re-claiming me, haha!)

So, that afternoon in the office, I was just about to share my strange anomaly of branding when the phone rang, completely interrupting our fun and requiring actual work to be done for the better part of five minutes. I stood there bookmarking our place in the conversation so we could return when he was done, and as soon as he hung up the phone, I started to speak. He stopped me and said, “Wait, I just want to show you one thing first. I have the Little Dipper on my left arm.” I paused for a second, embarrassed and sure he was making fun of me. “I already told you, didn’t I?” He didn’t seem to know what I was talking about. “Come on, Jason, you’re making fun of me!! I already told you.” Sure enough, he extended his left arm, and showed me a very similar pattern of freckles that, indeed, made up the Little Dipper. After I picked up my jaw off the desk, I showed him my Little Dipper on my left arm, and told him that was exactly what I was waiting to show him. (I'm sure we hummed the Twilight Zone music at that point.)

Coincidence? How the hell could it be?!? If there’s one thing I do know, it’s how very little we actually know. Beyond scientific understanding? Perhaps. Beyond the “laws” of nature? No way. Why, it’s so natural, you might even say it’s SUPERnatural.