(Per my earlier (1-13-05) promise to fill you up with the seed of meaningful coincidence.)

The boys and I watched a pair of movies a few days ago, Woody Allen’s Bananas and also Groundhog Day. I had only seen parts of the latter before, never the whole thing (it’s bright outside the cave). Nevertheless, Groundhog Day, the whole or the parts, puts me in a thoughtful, philosophical moo…even more of a thoughtful, philosophical mood.

Afterwards, my roommate was playing some online poker for a change. I called his raise in my usual way, by doing absolutely nothing active, and just listening to some George Carlin on my computer. I got an MP3 of him reading an essay from his new book, When Will Jesus Bring The Pork Chops? The essay was about the Ten Commandments, and how ten are too many, and how the whole thing’s unnecessarily bureaucratic.

Without my knowledge, Adam received pocket tens that hand.

As I listen, I point to call attention to the connection. We get a kick out of it (mine’s much bigger). When the flop hits, there’s ANOTHER ten in there. Three tens. And this, as Carlin is saying, “Ten sounds important. Ten is the basis for the decimal system. It’s a decade. It’s a psychologically satisfying number. The Top Ten, the Ten Most Wanted, the Ten Best Dressed.”

The first coincidence was cute, but this one made you think.

George keeps talking, explaining how TEN was a marketing decision, and making some good points, as usual.

The turn hits, and it’s not a ten. We weren’t looking too intently for the fourth, satisfied with the set. Then the river…

…a TEN.

4 10s. While George Carlin was arguing about the TEN Commandments. I don’t think I overreacted when I fell to my knees and yelled, “I BELIEVE!” with an untraceable amount of irony.

Now, I don’t know what it is I meant to declare my belief in: The number 10? 1′s and 0′s? God? A universe governed completely and coldly by circumstance? The power of the imagination? In the end I just think I believe in ability to be surprised. That dreams are real. That “impossible” may at least sometimes be the judgment of a weak human mind that just doesn’t know enough, or doesn’t want to because it’s lazy or afraid.