eight random things.....

Recently, friends have been posting "eight random things you did not know about me" on FB. It has been fascinating to learn obscure little facts about friends that would never normally come up in regular conversation. Last night at a casual dinner get-together we were laughing about some of these posts and one friend said both he and his sister had had polio as youngsters, in fact his sister had been in an iron lung. He remembered it being in the living room, breathing for her! The same friend had been on a bridge in Tampa, Florida, when a barge hit the bridge, sending dozens of cars into the river below. He was other the other span and saw this. I remember reading about that barge incident. He does not like crossing bridges to this day. Another friend posted that he had been on the Amtrak when it derailed many years ago. It was a serious incident, with fatalities, and I remembered reading about that also. He and his wife had randomly been in the bar car and were OK. Just odd to later meet and know people who had actually been in these accidents you hear about. And to learn the impact it had on them. Because I realized when I did my own eight random facts that they were moments that have stayed in the forefront of my memory for some reason. Perhaps because of people we met or the fear it instilled, as in the aversion to bridges. This is going out on a limb, but it also made me wonder about past lives and deep, deep memories. I am not the most trusting person and am a little cautious when meeting people at first. There have been many dreams over the years about clandestine adventures and rather dark encounters. I swear I was a French spy and I have a weird "memory" of dying from a shot or lance or arrow through the upper back. I can see the hood around my face and the ground rushing up as I fell. As I said very weird. But to get back to the random facts, I wish all my friends would do it as I have really enjoyed reading these little nuggets of information, like little snapshots into their lives. I was told that if you post on someone's "facts" then you have to do it for yourself. And for all the non-Facebook sharing friends, their random facts will be the subject of dinner parties!