Seeking Synchronicity
Plus, the *best* eats in Portland and Seattle, why we love the Olympics and a hot take on Alice Munro.
Two bodies walk to the edge. They brace for a moment before leaping into the still pool of blue below. As they rapidly descend through the air, they contort their bodies into identical shapes, hitting each pose simultaneously, so precisely I feel like I’m watching a series of still images flash before my eyes. The goal, the announcer says, is for them to mirror each other, right down to the millisecond. How can two separate bodies—each with their own complex system of unique cells and completely different heartbeats—be expected to move in complete synchronicity? How do two people become one?
When I’m feeling out of sync, I seek nature. So on my day off work, I head to Washington Park in Portland to be in the forest. As I’m walking on the sidewalk, a car is exiting a grocery store parking lot. I assume he will stop. He assumes there is no one walking on the sidewalk. Two separate moving bodies converge. We become one as I feel the force of his moving vehicle aga…