Two unsuspecting people find themselves on a cosmic collision course.
Art by Pete Whitehead
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Story performed by: Aaron Calafato
Audio Production: Ken Wendt
Original Art: Pete Whitehead
Music Contributor: thomas j. duke
Podcast Coordinator: Cori Birce
Creative Consultant: Anthony Vorndran
TRANSCRIPT
S2E4-Semi-Soulmates.mp3 - powered by Happy Scribe
Hey wanted to do a quick shout out and thank you to our team. Ken Wendt did the audio, Pete Whitehead did the art and the animation and Frank Ivy put together the beautiful music. If you remember back to episode 33 of 7 Minute Stories, that was titled The Yellow Bird. Well, The Yellow Bird story was then shared on Snap Judgment and shared across public radio stations around the country. That was awesome. Then, shortly after that, the team I just mentioned, we came together and created a super short animated film also titled The Yellow Bird, based on the original story, and that animation was just screened at The Moorpark Film Festival.
Thank you to The Moorpark Film Festival for sharing our little animation. Thanks again to our team. What do you know? 7 Minute Stories, right? Now it's in film festivals. Really, really cool. If you haven't seen that animation, you can see it at 7MinuteStories.com. Here's Cori.
You're listening to 7 Minute Stories with Aaron Calafato. We love hearing from you, so we set up a number you can call or text it's 216-352-4010. Use it and share some feedback about one of Aaron's Stories or a story of your own. We might feature your text message or voicemail in an upcoming episode. Also visit our website 7MinuteStories.com. That's the number 7 Minute Stories dot com to see the awesome new merch available this season, choose from Stickers, Koozies, T-shirts, tote bags and more. I have to say the tote bag is my favorite.
This episode, Semi-Soulmates.
Have you ever run into anybody over and over and over again throughout your life? Someone that you knew but didn't really know, was sort of an acquaintance, but not enough for you to say something, that there was always a tension as to whether you should say something or not, even more of a tension than when you see someone from high school that you haven't seen in a long time. At least there you have a direct connection and can say, yeah remember we were in that class. Ha ha, remember biology class?
It was crazy. You could do something like that. This is even more ambiguous. You know of a person, you've seen them, maybe you've had a few conversations with them, but yet you don't know them. So I felt this was a really good time to tell you this, because I just got back from a walk and I made a discovery that I needed to tell you about, and it has everything to do with relating to this question of... The phrase I'm using is, it's almost like a semi-soulmate.
Because they don't really... They're not really your soulmate, but you run into them. It's almost like the universe is drawing you to them. So for the sake of the podcast, I know this guy's real name, but I'm going to call him Tim. So I met Tim years ago. Had to be six or seven, eight years old, and we went to the same church. That's where that initial connection was. We went to the same church, small church, but, you know, a pretty intimate community or whatever. And we would do events and fundraisers and all this kind of stuff.
But I was a kid, so I knew of him. I saw Tim at some of the events, and sometimes we were acolytes together in the Episcopal Church. I remember one time we were kind of messing around when we were acolytes, and then afterwards, my mom came into the room where we're kind of getting back into our clothes. We weren't getting dressed when she came in, but she kind of just knocked on the door and yelled at us for misbehaving. But that's basically it. I knew Tim had a brother.
I kind of knew his brother a little bit, but that went out for four or five, six years. Sort of just this off in the distance connection. Never hung out, never went over to his house, never came over to my house, nothing deep, but over about five or six years that occurred. So after a while, I just stopped going to church. I decided I didn't want to go to the church anymore. I was kind of on a different journey, different path. But I would still run into Tim all the time.
And that made sense because we were in the same hometown. So I just kind of figured it's just one of those people you run into, you bump into, you're in the same town. Now, the town that I live in now and that I'm from, I've boomeranged back, and I live here now. It's about 30,000 people. So it's not a tiny small town, but still I would run into him throughout high school. And then I went to college. I mean, I didn't leave the state, but I went far away, almost 2 hours, 2 or 3 hours away at the other end of the state.
But every time I would come back to visit, I'd run into Tim. It could be at a coffee shop, could be pumping gas. Next thing you know, I look over. There he is, and he's looking at me, and I'm looking at him. We're kind of making side eyes. We don't know what to say, but there he is. I'm having a hot dog on the square. There he is at the cash register. And I started thinking, this has just got to be coincidence, because you're from the same town, even though it's got 30,000 people, whatever.
He might just live here. And there's only a few places, really, you can go here. And that's why you're running into him. But then it kept going. So I moved out to New Jersey and would bridge and tunnel into New York. I've told stories about this. And when I would come back to visit on the holidays, I'm running into Tim. Mind you, I'm not running into anybody else from my hometown. I mean, there are people that I want to hang out with purposely that I seek their attention, dear friends of mine, that I've grown up with, people right now that were part of my friend group, we have kids and we're busy in life, and we're trying to make time to meet each other, and we still can't see each other because we're so busy.
I run into Tim more than I run into them without even trying. It's the weirdest thing. And so I'm in New Jersey, I'm coming back, I'm running into him. All this time, by the way, I never say anything. Never say a word. He never says a word to me. So just a couple hours ago, I'm taking a walk around my neighborhood. I live now in my home town, and I'm walking and three houses down, I look over and I see Tim and he's in this yard.
I'm going, that's weird. I wonder if he's visiting the people there. And then I come back and I see that it's him with his kids and his wife and that's his house. Tim lives three houses down from me now. By the way, when I'm walking in my neighborhood, I look over at him, I don't say hi. He doesn't say hi to me. We just side eye each other. This has been going on for 20 years, 20 years. Now the guy lives three houses down from me. So I'm telling you all this because I think something's got to happen.
I have to say something. It's almost like the universe is telling me to say something. This is not a coincidence anymore. This is the weirdest thing I've ever experienced. And I think I'm just gonna go up and say, hey, listen, Tim, and I'm gonna tell him the story I just told you and see how he reacts. And even if he doesn't react in a way that I want him to or he's freaked out, at least I will have said something. Acknowledged this phenomenon that's been occurring that... I can't ignore it.
It's almost as if the universe doesn't want me to ignore it. And I think there are things... there are forks in the road in your life where you're like, do we just keep doing this dance for years? Do I just put my French film hat on and say, it is what it is? Or do I step in and say something? I almost feel like the universe has brought me to this crossroads, this fork in the road. And if I decide to say something to him, maybe that could change the trajectory of both of our lives.
I don't know. But if I don't say something, that could change it too. So I'm going to turn off the microphone and I think I'm going to tell him. I'm going to say, Tim, whether you like it or not, we're semi-soulmates. And no matter what he says or what happens, I'm going to have the peace of mind to know that I had some impact, some little influence over the trajectory of the universe because it's got to go somewhere from there. It's kind of cool, you know, being at the edge of your own universe.
Today's episode of 7 Minute Stories is made possible by Fishbowl. Now I started using Fishbowl because I asked myself this question. Is there an app for professionals that doesn't feel gross, that doesn't feel like Facebook or LinkedIn? Is there something that provides a safe space where you can get the inside scoop on companies you actually want to work for, where you have the ability to post anonymously, where you can get referrals and where you can just authentically network with other professionals? Is that too much to ask?
Well, it's not because, as I found out, that's exactly what Fishbowl provides. They also have free live audio talks and Q&As with industry experts, I know this because I do live talks about storytelling and podcasting on the app. And if you're interested in hearing those, Cori and I will be announcing my upcoming dates on this podcast in the future. Fishbowl is available for both iPhone and Android. So search your app store and download the free app today.
7 Minute Stories is created and performed by Aaron Calafato. Audio production by Ken Wendt. You can connect with Ken or inquire about his audio production services at Media216.com. Original artwork by Pete Whitehead. Find out more about Pete's work at PeteWhitehead.com. Our creative consultant is Anthony Vorndran and Lennon Janovyak is our production assistant. Special thanks to our partners at Evergreen Podcasts. And lastly, I'm Cori Birce. Make sure and tune in next week for another story.
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