I tend to think of myself as a hopeful skeptic.

I’d like to be a believer, I’m just cynical enough to think I know how the world works, and many things that require a leap of faith are hard for me.

This is especially true for me in the realm of the supernatural. 

I think there is definitely more to the world than we know, or even guess at.  I’d just like some irrefutable proof, on my terms.  Show me the science or the recipe.  But I want it the way that I want it.  I want to go to your house or business or whatever, witness it for myself, with all possible quantifications, and then I want to return safely to my own home.

I’ve read lots of books on various kinds of parapsychological phenomenon.  And I always start reading these with an optimism that this will be the one that gives me the incontrovertible proof I want.  Then there are a series of questionable conclusions or leaps of faith that I don’t agree with.  Or there’s just no conclusion at all.

That’s one of the reasons I’d never gone to a psychic.  I want to believe, but I just don’t.  And if there was a psychic out there who was so good that they could give me specifics beyond reproach, well, I’m pretty sure we all would have heard of them by now, right?

There used to be a psychic who lived on the edge of town, the last house in a row of homes near the airport.  I used to pass her house daily when I was doing traffic reports for a radio station.  One day, as I passed her house, there was a car parked facing the highway, with a big FORSALE sign in the windshield.

I joked on the air about how, if she was really a psychic, she would have waited to put the car there until the person who was going to buy it was going to come by.  Ha ha ha.

That car was gone the next day.

As far as this being any kind of experience, it’s really nothing more than a slightly humorous anecdote.  Part of me really wants to believe that whoever that psychic was, they did know the person that was going to buy that car was coming by.

But I also can’t help but think that, even if someone did buy that car on that particular day, it really doesn’t prove anything.

And I want proof.

I think that’s how just about everyone feels whenever the conversation turns to psychics.  Tell me what number I’m thinking of.  Who’s going to win the Super Bowl?  And if you’re really a psychic, how come you haven’t already won the lottery for yourself?

Being a psychic must be the only profession where, if you aren’t always one hundred percent right about every single thing, than you must be a fake, a fraud, a phony.

I wonder why it is that we don’t hold others to these same kinds of standards.

The first example that leaps to mind is that sorcery known as “meteorology”.  It’s supposed to be a science.  Is there anyone that really thinks their weather-person is right even half the time?  They have years of science and the latest technology, but they still aren’t sure where the storm is headed.

And how about baseball players?  Hank Aaron didn’t hit a homerun every time at bat.  Neither did Babe Ruth.  Or Barry Bonds (and he was cheating).  A baseball player can do a little better than getting a hit thirty percent of the time, and he’s considered All-Star material.  A little better than that, and he’s headed for the Hall of Fame.

And not only can a car mechanic be wrong about the problem with your car, but you’ll actually wind up paying them for being wrong!  And then you’ll come back and give them another chance!

We listen to doctors who can’t cure the common cold, let alone the flu.  And if they tell us that it’s not an exact science, we accept that.

But if a psychic says they can’t see Tuesday’s winning lotto numbers because it’s too random, there’s too much free will and it’s not an exact science, then we nod knowingly and decide they’re obviously trying to scam us.

Don’t get me wrong.  I still need some proof.  And I don’t mean to suggest that every single person claiming to be some kind of psychic is legit.

Of course, it isn’t as if there aren’t plenty of scammers in every other business out there.  Lance Armstrong is probably the most recent to be featured in the headlines, but there are plenty of non-celebrities who also fit that bill.
On the other hand, every stock broker who loses their clients’ money is not necessarily a fake.  Car manufacturers that sell new makes and models with defects aren’t necessarily frauds.  And just because I said no pickles and they put pickles on anyway doesn’t mean McDonalds is a phony.

This is all the kinds of things I had running through my brain when I finally got the chance to meet a new friend of my wife’s, whom I have reason to believe is the real deal.  And I think I believe this without proof (though I’d really like to have that).

You can check out her store HERE and find out about some of the classes she offers HERE (especially if you’re in or around the San Diego area).  I probably should mention that I’m not getting paid for any of this.  I just think we all have some pre-conceived notions about just what “those kinds of people” are like.

And I’ll share some of the reasons I think Teresa is the real deal next time, though if you require your own proof (and I understand if you do), check her out at the links above and think about attending one of her events (you won’t be sorry).

Ken

P.S. - Forgot to include today's playlist!  This comes from a new list I put together of classic rock, mixed with many of my favorites from that era who are still active today...

Tony Carey "A Fine Fine Day"
The Radiators "Confidential"
The Pretenders "Space Invader"
Stevie Nicks "Secret Love"
Lynyrd Skynyrd "Free Bird" (live)
The Cranberries "Roses"
Meat Loaf "All Of Me"
Styx "Renegade"
Billy Joel "Everybody Loves You Now"
Slade "Mama Weer All Crazee Now"
Elton John "Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding"
Ray Davies with Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora "Celluloid Heroes'
U2 "Two Hearts Beat As One?

I still haven’t won the lottery.

I did just put the final finishing touch on this season’s broadcast for my Christmas station, posting the top 100 songs from this year (which you can find HERE).

That station is something I would definitely continue doing, and WILL continue doing, after I do win. 

I’ve been blogging off and on about living my life as though I’d already won the lottery.  And as we plunge into 2013, I’ve thought about some other things I’d do that I could do right now.

One of the first would be to spend more time with my family – both the family that lives with me, or near me, in Sunny San Diego, as well as my parents, my siblings and their attachments (all back East).

The easiest is those who are geographically desirable.  Like Lisa, who is about three feet away right now, writing on her computer on the other side of the office we share.  I’ve been resistant to the whole eat-better-and-exercise thing, but I’m trying, and this is something we can do together.  Misery loves company, right?  We’ll head out for our walk together shortly, and I’ll try not to complain too much.

It’s much more difficult to keep connected to those I love on the other side of the country.  The Mega Millions would make that a bit easier, of course, as I could fly there or fly them here (or alternate). 

My schedule is always a little crazy, and when you add the time difference to that, and it makes phone calls a little tricky.  So, I’ve taken to writing them, trying to catch up through email.

I’ve discovered that this is becoming a lost art.  Not email, but writing letters (even if the medium used is email).  Do you write newsy, here’s-what’s-going-on-with-me emails?  I haven’t in a while, and it’s taking a little to get back to it.  But the longer we go without seeing each other, the less we really know one another.

So I’m going to email at least one of them every day.  I don’t live such a glamorous life that every day is jam-packed with news, but since I don’t see them that often, they really don’t know what a day in my life is like (and I don’t know what their days are really like, either).

Once the lottery winnings come in, and I make it through that first wave of rampant consumerism, this is probably something I’d still want to do.  Even though I’d get to see them more often, we’d still be living on opposite coasts, and I hate to miss out on stuff.  I already feel like I’ve miss a lot.

As this becomes part of my routine, I’d really like to do the same with some of my friends.  Sure, we reconnect occasionally on Facebook, and I see videos they like, who they’re beating at Words With Friends and that sort of thing.  But so many of these people were friends I used to see almost every day, and I’d like to get to know them all over again, too.

I don’t really make resolutions, so that isn’t what this is.  It’s already halfway through January, anyhow.

But I would like to see 2013 be the Year of Reconnection.  And that’s not something I could buy no matter how many lotteries I win!

Thinking about all this has made me a little nostalgic, so here’s what I listened to as I wrote this, shuffling out of my 80’s playlist…

The Cars “You Are The Girl”
The Hooters “Day By Day”
Simple Minds “All The Things She Said She Said’
Wall of Voodoo “Mexican Radio”
Fairground Attraction “Perfect”
ZZ Top “T.V. Dinners”
Dire Straits “Money For Nothing”
The Alarm “Rain In The Summertime’
Pat Benatar “Fire And Ice’
George Thorogood and the Destroyers “Gear Jammer”

Off to walk now.  Hope your 2013 is off to a good start!

Ken