Learning to expect the unexpected

The art of ‘BEING OUT THERE’, with Kevin Fitzpatrick

The world we live in isn’t always as it seems. Sometimes things happen that are hard to believe.

Like the time I was passing an Eddie Stobbart truck on the way to Brighton and I guessed the name on its bonnet.

“Samantha!” I said for a bit of fun as we sped past but as I turned, to my astonishment, it was writted there on the front, “Sa-man-tha!”

Wow! Blown away by this awesome new power I possessed, I tried again on the next truck. “Isabella!” I shouted but sadly the magic had gone. “Dawn? Who’d name a truck Dawn?” Perhaps once was enough to confirm what I’d always suspected, that I was a bit “out there”.

From being young, I’d always felt I was a little different, special even. I often heard a line from song in my head before someone started to sing it.

Strange, because I didn’t even like the Bee Gees. Unexplained things constantly happened to me. Sometimes I’d wake up covered in shoes.

I only found out years later that my brother had thrown them at me during the night to get me to stop snoring.

After the truck incident though, anything seemed possible. I began to look around me and question everything about life and the universe. Could there be an after-life?

Do aliens ever lose their keys? What is it about Ken Barlow that makes women go crazy for him?

I went to see a medium but to be honest he was more like an extra large.

I tried going to a clairvoyants meeting but it was cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances. I looked into time travel but decided there was no future in it. I even had a go at telepathy but I think you know what happened there.

After a while I realised that there was no need for me to find the answers.

It is enough just to consider the questions.

Being “out there” isn’t about dying your hair pink, although that helps, it’s about not being limited by the belief systems which society imposes on you.

It’s about being open to the unknown and the unexpected.

Our lives are enriched by the chance of possibility however far fetched it might be.

Otherwise there’d be no point in British tennis players entering Wimbledon.


Next week . . . The Art of Remembering.