Intersections

Tonight at dinner I found out that one of the poets in residence here was  an art model at the University of Knoxville during the couple of months that I was modeling  there in 1974.  She also sold blood plasma at a storefront collection center, as I did, and had a similar experience that left her on a gurney most of the day while they tried to get the "leftover" blood back into her veins. Friendships often start on these pieces of common ground and this small wedge of the past seems like a bridge to something more. We plan to do a reading together sometime later this week and I'm very excited to hear what she's working on. She's been a regular breakfast and dinner companion these past few days and we've done quite a bit of laughing together.  I'm mystified by coincidences like this, and I always find myself asking,"What are the odds..."  But maybe the odds of the past intersecting with the present are pretty good.  Unless you enter the witness protection program, the past seems to have a pretty good chance of meeting you in the present. After this latest coincidence, I spent a little time googling things like "nude+zebra rug" wondering if I'd find a picture of myself on the internet. Thankfully, that piece of the past seems to have disappeared.