Intro: Pounding bass note and a stirring fanfare of horns. Welcome to another edition of Things to Think about. Here's Stacy. The horns continue with a keyboard note held.
Relaxing piano music is in the background.
Welcome to the Things to Think About podcast, where we use fables and fairy tales to uncover deeper truths about our subconscious world. I'm Stacy Casson, and today's story explores our beliefs. Several people like to play with fortune-telling for fun. What if their fortune was accurate and uniquely specific? We will dive into the idea of choices in a tale I call “The Daily.” And now, get comfortable and relax. Take a deep breath in. And exhale. A deep breath in and exhale. A deep breath in and exhale. And if you'd like, you can slowly close your eyes.
Once upon a time, there was a person who loved fortunes. There was not a fortune cookie, daily horoscope, or psychic that they did not like. Let’s call our person M. M never took the fortunes seriously unless they were fun. “It’s your lucky day!” meant that M would buy a lottery ticket. Even though they never won, they would play. Scrolling through Spinstabook, they saw an ad for a daily fortune app. I don’t think you need a psychic to tell you that M downloaded the app without hesitation. The next day, a message popped up. “Don’t forget your umbrella.” M. checked the weather report, and there was only a twenty-percent chance of rain. They left home. Cue the camera zoom in on the umbrella left at home.
It was pouring rain when M. was ready to leave the office. They waited a few minutes to see if it would ease up, but they had another appointment and needed to leave. They sprinted to their car and got drenched. A few minutes later, the rain stopped. The next day, another message popped up. “Buy a lottery ticket.” Even though they had never won before, on the way home, M. picked up groceries and a scratch-off ticket. They sat in their car and scratched it and were excited that they won fifty dollars. The app only sent one message a day at a set time, and the only settings were for time zone and language. M. could hardly wait the next day for the melodious notification. “A bargain isn’t a bargain.” Later that day, their friend called them about an incredible deal on a Smart TV. Even though their own television was ancient, they hearkened back to the message from the app and decided not to buy a new one. The next call was from the same friend asking if they could sleep on their couch because their apartment caught on fire due to a spark from their new television.
M. was getting concerned about the app. Were these events coincidences, or was there something to the app? The next day, M. ignored the ping from the app. On a whim, they decided to catch a movie after work and ran into an old friend at the theater. They had a great time catching up at the movies. When they were going to sleep, they decided to look at the app. The message for that day had been, “Try something new!” M. was chilled to the bone and tossed and turned during their sleep. What was happening? The next day the app pinged, and M. was almost afraid to look. The message read, “Blue is your favorite color.” M. was wearing a red blouse and did not have time to change. It was employee appreciation week, and they had many games throughout the day. One of them was to pick from three boxes to win a prize. One was red, one was yellow, and one was blue. M.’s first instinct was to pick the yellow box, but their favorite color was blue, so they chose the blue box. They won a stress ball. The following employee chose the yellow box and won a gift card for twenty-five dollars.
M. was perturbed. They should have trusted their instinct and picked the yellow box. M. was taking notes during a meeting, and their hand started to spasm painfully. They stretched out their fingers, and the pain ceased. Over the course of the week, the spasms increased to the point that M. went to see the doctor. The doctor noted that they may be in the primary stages of carpal tunnel syndrome and recommended they make some ergonomic changes and incorporate daily exercises using a stress ball. M. called a friend. “Hey, I downloaded this app, and all these weird things have been happening,” and then went on to share the recent events. Their friend was very skeptical and pointed out that many of the scenarios could be explained by coincidence. “Those twenty-five dollars could have bought a stress ball with plenty of money left over,” they responded. M. was unsure what to believe after speaking with their friend. Later that evening, they looked up the app on their phone to delete it, and yet their finger hovered over the delete button.
If you could know your future, would you want to? How we view the situations, we find ourselves in often depends on our perspective. I often find that not being able to complete something is a blessing in disguise because I forgot a crucial part. Is the future set in stone, or do our choices have an impact? And now you can take a deep breath in and exhale. A deep breath in and exhale. Deep breath in and exhale. And when you're ready, wiggle your toes. Wiggle your fingers and slowly open your eyes. If you're enjoying this podcast, please tell a friend.
Closing: Closing jazzy keyboard and thrumming bass. I hope you enjoyed today's segment. Tell a friend. See you next time. Music fades.
