I was recently walking around a touristy spot in the Finger Lakes when I heard a deep voice speaking to me as I walked past a Zoltar Speaks booth…Let me tell you your fortune.
In an unexpected burst of excitement reminiscent of hearing the popsicle truck bell as a child, I immediately I asked my companions for a dollar. Who carries cash anymore? I slid the bill into the slot and heard the booming voice again:
The smallest good deed is better than the grandest intention. Intending shall get you nowhere but doing…YES, that will bring you much reward.
For even more reward, he suggests:
Provide Zoltar more treasure and I will provide you the depths of wisdom.
A paper fortune pops out as a small takeaway:
Your recent solitude has led you to feel lonely, Cheer up, my friend! Things are not as bad as they seem…
You’ve likely seen these booths at carnivals and festive places. There is one at a Buffalo Bar called The Gypsy Parlor, a spot with Bohemian Vibes. Readers, there is that word again (see my last post).
Always seeking a more elevated view of things (depths of wisdom, according to Zoltar), I have entertained varied interests of personal development (psychic readings, astrology, tarot, yoga, meditation. I admit to purchasing a copy of Be Here Now in 1975 and also own a copies of The I Ching and The Book of Runes.
Have a dilemma to sort out? Pick a stone from the bag and open the book to find a brief reading to consider.
Some people call such things woo woo. I get it. I’m basically a realist, but I also respect the possibility of mystery and the idea of synchronicity coined by Carl Jung. We all experience significant coincidences. Tuning into them tends to lead to more until they are everywhere. That has been happening to me in the days since I posted my last essay inspired by a Beach Boys record. The word, vibe, now comes up everywhere I turn.
Someone once commented that she liked one of my paintings and said It’s kind of witchy.
Hmmmmm.
Then I came upon the phrase, slightly witchy aunt, a woman a little on the edge of the mainstream who might be found making collages with nieces and nephews.
I took note.
Although my new age tendencies are quite nuanced at this late stage, I still have some Enya CDs, small statues of Buddha and Quan Yin, along with a couple crystals. I have also entertained various practices of manifestation and journal writing. I enjoy lavender, sandalwood and vetiver, but I have never worn patchouli. I do not enjoy the ambiance of a renaissance fair. I have never worn Berkenstocks. I have no tattoos. I did not pierce my ears until I was in my 40s.
While mindfulness may have entered the new age trends, eastern thought is ancient, a practice that requires finding out for oneself rather than assigning too much power toward any one thing. I took refuge vows as a Buddhist in 1995. So many of my ideas came out of an individualistic 20th Century way of being that appreciates solitude and introspection.
I had a poster on the wall of my college dorm room in 1970, a distant mountain over a gauzy pond in the woods with the words of The Gestalt Prayer (Fritz Perls, 1969) . . .
I do my thing and you do your thing.
I am not in this world to live up to your expectations,
And you are not in this world to live up to mine.
You are you, and I am I, and if by chance we find each other, it’s beautiful.
If not, it can’t be helped.
Seems corny now. These words made up a sentiment that was infused into the 1970s and offered a sense of freedom to a generation, lovingly referred to as The Me Generation (now disparagingly called Boomers).
While the digital age has given younger generations anxiety over ghosting and breakup texts, the young people of fifty years ago experienced a different but similar version of vagueness and lack of commitment (as evidenced in the words on the poster) in personal relationships—essentially, the ongoing and inevitable uncertainty of daily life.
The phrase, Catch Ya Later comes to mind—or the shortened version, Later! That popular parting phrase of the time could mean tonight, three weeks from now or maybe never again.
While Zoltar, encourages quiet times of self-reflection, too much of it has delivered us to an era when living individually and alone much of the time includes unfortunate consequences, such as loneliness, inability to align with others or take risks. Leaders seeking authoritarian rule benefit from a population afflicted this way.
Zoltar may have hit just the right tone with his first bit of advice…
Aim for small good deeds over grand gestures.
Summer of 2025 seems to require greater solidarity among citizens, a loosening up of the solitary experience of contemporary digital life, one good deed at a time and few grand gestures, such as this one…
People seem to need a chance to let out their slightly witchy side and commune with others around a common goal…stirring the cauldron of the greater good.
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