I typically don't pay enough attention to things in life to notice reoccurring images. Over the past week, however, I have seen the image to the left at least 3 times. 1st Incident: Last friday, while still in California on vacation, I went to the Grocery store to buy something. I took a back-alley way as to avoid traffic and on my way in, I saw a group of students walking in the opposite direction, one of them carrying a pair of shoes. As I was driving home, the shoes were hanging on a telephone wire above the alley.
2nd Incident: Just this afternoon, I was driving to Wendy's to get dinner for my girlfriend and myself. As I passed through a random track of homes, there they were. A pair of sneakers hanging over my, stuck forever on a wire.
3rd Incident: Tonight I was flipping through channels and just happened to stop on what I think was MTV (save the jokes). The show was going to commercial and slowly zoomed in on a pair of shoes, hung on, what else but a telephone wire.
I did a little research on the internet (by research I mean clicking on the first search result) and found several possible interpretations for the "shoes on the telephone wire." Here are some of my favorites:
- the shoes on the wire mean you can buy crack there
- Is a ritual to throw an old pair of shoes over the telephone wire when a new pair was acquired
- It is a gang symbol
- To keep your alcoholic father from stealing them from you in the middle of the night and selling them for Old Crow money.
While I think that final idea may be a bit of a stretch, shoes on a telephone wire could mean anything. What I really want to know is why I suddenly saw this image more times in one week than I remember seeing in several years. What could it mean in my life? I did buy a new pair of shoes about 5 weeks ago. Maybe it means my feet hurt, as they kind of do. I do, of course, walk all day for work. Do the shoes mean I should join a gang? I have been playing Grand Theft Auto 4 but I doubt that would cause me to notice such a petty thing.
Is there a point to this jackass rambling on about old shoes on a telephone wire? Maybe. The point is that I suddenly began to notice this small, insignificant thing and it has made me question why. If I kept having a dream with a pair of dangling shoes in it, one would argue that they symbolized something. The difference now is that this is REAL life and I am seeing a reoccurring and uncommon image. Maybe it just is a coincidence and this entire post is just me overanalyzing a petty series of events. I think there is more to it, though. It isn't the same as seeing your kitchen or car everyday and that symbolizing something. It's more like seeing a raccoon with a glass eye. Well, you get what I mean.
