Mind Of Shuffle

iPod-wise, I've always been a playlist kind of guy. For the uninitiated--and what exactly are you waiting for? I was one of the original iPod owners, early adapter that I am--after you've loaded all the music you own onto your iPod (I have five days worth), you can sort your music into various playlists. I have my gym mix (code named 'Testosterone'), my heading-down-to-the-Bike Stop mix, my roadtrip mix... you get the idea, huh?

Well, when I went to the beach with UnFortunate a few months back, he was verrry excited about his new discovery: Shuffle. Heretofore, Shuffle was a feature I never used. When you have your iPod set to Shuffle, it plays every track you have loaded, one by one, without repeating.

Surrender my discriminating though eclectic tastes and creativity to sheer randomness?

Madness, surely.

But UnFortunate was all about Shuffle. "It's incredible! It will play a cover of one band, and then follow that with a track by the band covered, but not the one covered! How does Shuffle know?"

On the way back to NYC, UnFortunate suggested we give Shuffle a whirl.

No. I don't do Shuffle. Enjoy my carefully selected playlist.

But after a few weeks, I relented. I gave Shuffle a go.

Shuffle is amazing.

Shuffle just defies comprehension. Need to perk up? Shuffle will have you singing along to an old favorite of yours at the top of your lungs. Feeling a little wistful? Shuffle will remind you that however bad you've got it, Morrissey had it worst. Same goes for those boys from Joy Division. All hot and bothered by those smokin' Starbucks boys? Rammstein will sure get your pistons firing in sync.

But here's what really throws me. Lately, I've noticed something. On my ride to work, I'll hear about four songs. And, there will be this subtle theme that emerges. Water. Voyages. Absent lovers. Summer.

Not hit you over the head kind of theme. But it's there.

It's almost like someone is in charge of Shuffle. Someone somewhere is doing that selecting with care.

But of course, there's no ghost in the machine.

it is natural to the human mind to synthesize. To deduce. To see patterns. It goes back to our days on the veldt, when survival depended on reading the herds of antelope, the weather, our enemies' intentions.

Amazed at the iPod combination that greeted me on my ride home after the gym this evening, I once again thought about 'How does Shuffle know?' and then thought about our President. Who, a few weeks ago, during the earlier weeks of his vacation, met with a group of journalists from Texas. Many of them have known him since he was Governor of Texas and before. And the big revelation he made was that he is down with the whole Intelligent Design thing.

You know, the idea that this world reflects intelligence. That it couldn't have just happened. But it did. That's just the way it happened. "Should crass causality appaul..."

Okay, you're thinking, there goes Mr. Materialism, reducing the world to particle physics.

Yes. And no.

Often, I get the distinct impression that God is indeed speaking to me. I pose a question, and here comes the answer. Our of that chaotic universe comes a warm and reassuring, "Hang in there, Buddy."

So the question isn't "is it Out There or In Here?" The question is, "Which is more reassuring? That someone out there is looking out for us, or that we've got that covered ourselves?"

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