People have claimed to see their entire lives flash before their eyes. I am glad not to have had (I think) such an experience. But during the past week and a half or so, I feel as if I’ve seen parts of my past unfolding in slow motion.
I believe it began when I had the dream about a high-school classmate I hadn’t seen since graduation and hadn’t thought about for almost as long. I Googled her name and found it on the “In Memoriam” list of my high school reunion webpage.
Since then, I have encountered three people I hadn’t seen, collectively, for about 50 years. One of those meetings was planned, with a former colleague and, I realized, friend . The other two I met during bike rides because I deviated from my originally-planned routes.
One gave me a temporary job during Citibike’s first year, when riders and the program’s coordinators and mechanics were discovering the bikes’ “bugs.” I fixed some of them (for good, I hope). Now she’s running the “bike library” in Shirley Chisholm State Park, where my ride took me when I decided to turn left from 84th Street in Howard Beach onto the Shore Parkway Greenway instead of going straight ahead to the Rockaways.
The other chance encounter happened when I crossed 167th Street at Bryant Avenue. I was about to turn right so I could access the path that runs through Concrete Plant Park. Instead,I pedaled straight through the intersection toward the Bruckner Bike Lane. “Pro-fessor Jus-time!” A student I had about a dozen years ago but with whom I’d been in touch only on Facebook since then ran up to me. Turns out, she’s running a youth program in the neighborhood.
Some might say there was a reason for all of those meetings and that dream. Perhaps they will be part of a journey—or ride.
