Okay...this is weird!

[TDDA]

I don't post about weird shit too often, but this just happened...

Several months back I was perusing a website about inks, fountain pen inks to be exact.  Various people had submitted their reviews of certain inks which I was reading through.  One reviewer posted a review about a couple different inks they had tested along with some pictures.  In the pictures was a statement..."Tiger-Tiger"...written with calligraphy in each one of the inks in question.  Shortly afterwards I got distracted by something and promptly forgot about it.

Two nights ago, for some odd reason, the phrase I'd seen months ago in the ink review..."Tiger-Tiger"... popped into my head.  This rang a bell with me, but I couldn't place it right off.  A quick check brought the reference quickly back to mind.  It is the opening two words of William Blake's 1794 poem "The Tiger".  I'm sure many here knew it even before I typed it, but I just couldn't place it in that moment (most likely because of the hyphen).

I remember the poem from my college years, and it always struck me as an enigma of sorts.  At first glance one might interpret the poem as being about fear, but it isn't, and this is what always intrigued me about it.  For the record, the poem is about what goes through the consciousness of one who creates something which generates terror and fear, even though they live for good.  (These are two distinctly different concepts.)   In many respects, it is about the 'creator'.  Is it about creating balance, or possibly a dark side of all good?  It's mystifying in a way.

Because I always liked the work, I decided to write it down (as I hadn't previously, and didn't have a copy of the work).  So, I took one of my own fountain pens and copied down the six verses from nearly 240 years ago.  I keep journals of life and times, so I wrote the poem down in one of those.

Later that evening I was sitting on the couch with the wife, watching TV which I am not a fan of...(TV, not sitting on the couch with the wife).  I'll be danged if all of a sudden, one of the characters on the program didn't say..."Tiger Tiger"...as if some cryptic reference.  Soon thereafter another character said the same thing..."Tiger Tiger".

My wife turned to me and asked what 'Tiger Tiger' meant(?)  (how strange, I thought) I told her to reach over her right shoulder and grab the journal book off the end-table, and open it to the marked page.  She did, and practically simultaneously some other character on the TV program asked the same question my wife had just asked.  As my wife read aloud the words from Blake's poem, so to did one of the characters on the program we were watching.  My wife just about fell off her seat...hearing them, identical, in line and verse.

Tyger Tyger, burning bright, 

In the forests of the night; 
What immortal hand or eye, 
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies. 
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat.
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp.
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears 
And water'd heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger Tyger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?


Now, if all of this wasn't strange enough already, then consider this...

With all the craziness and evil going on in our society today, pick a country (North America, Europe, Australia, Asia, Japan, etc.), seemingly all at once, one must wonder what is the root of it all, and what was in the consciousness of whatever entity created the purveyors of it.

Perhaps Blake was wondering in 1794 what we, in society today, should be wondering.  Though, this Tiger has no stripes, yet he is among us.

(Now, you tell me...if that isn't some freaky, weird, quinky-dink, paranormal, spooky, weird shit...then I'm not sure I know what is!)

Imagine the number of events that had to come together so this could happen. At first I thought spooky but I think that a lot of things just aligned. These moments happen sometimes. Where everything comes together. Maybe we do not catch them as often as they happen, is what I think. 

This is exceptional though, thank you for sharing :)