I love foreshadowing! I wish I was better at writing it. Whenever I try, it seems more like telegraphing a punch than anything else. Yeah, I need to work on that level of subtlety. I think it’s because I lack the ability to create events that are unnoticeable at first, but then become meaningful once you realize what is going to happen later. That’s the masterful foreshadowing– not when you notice an event, wonder what it means, then hope it becomes clear later. The best foreshadowers show you things that you notice, but don’t consider to be foreshadowing. Yesterday, oddly enough, I experienced a real-life series of events that — if this were a movie or a book — you could call foreshadowing. I left home in the morning through the back gate on my way to the library (on foot).
- As I shut the gate behind me, it made a slightly different sound than normal, and I noted it, but I paid it no mind and continued.
- I noticed a pair of people working in the yard of my duplex neighbor. We have a new neighbor, and she is just getting settled, so seeing people redoing stuff in the yard wasn’t too weird. The thought crossed my mind to ask them what they were doing, and if they needed to get into my side of the yard or anything, but I felt pressed for time, and continued without speaking to them.
- I noticed a pair of small dogs ahead of me in the alley, one male and one female, recently cleaned and brushed, with their collars on. They were clearly not strays, but I seemed to recall seeing them wander around before and did not try to corral them or find out where they got out from. These three things happened within the first 3 minutes of me leaving my home. I remember checking my phone to see the time, too, which is also slightly uncommon.
Of course, as soon as I got back from the library, I found the gate had been moved off of its hinges, hanging ajar, and the dogs nowhere to be seen. After searching for a while, my wife eventually found them again, not too far from home. The dogs were safe and sound, but the sequence of events led me to wonder about life and the universe. I definitely noticed all 3 of those things and felt each was notable before any later, larger event could bring them any meaning. Now, do they really have meaning? Would they be meaningful if my dogs hadn’t gotten out? Who determines whether they are meaningful as foreshadowing or not? If we do, how many more things do we miss every day that point to the future?
You left out the dramatic part where I was frantically searching everywhere for my dogs. Also the part where I drove home from work like a maniac. OK, that didn’t really happen but I was pretty anxious that they would be run over or someone would “adopt” them. Argo is the perfect dog! Who wouldn’t want him?
Dang, kid, you read that up fast!