Let's analyze my failure to notice the Coincidence between the Portland Woman song and Vanessa's plans to move to Portland, Oregon.  Prior to Vanessa's entrance into my life, I spent two years in college studying concepts such as Coincidence and Divine Intervention.  In the process I documented a lengthy list of personal Coincidences.  By the time I met Vanessa, the List of potential Supernatural events hovered around 30.  Who better to recognize a Supernatural Event in the making than Rick Archer, Coincidence Hunter Extraordinaire? 

But I struck out.  I completely missed it.  Why?  There are all sorts of reasons, some Realistic, some Mystic.  One Realistic reason is that I was seriously distracted by Vanessa's beguiling charms.  Another reason would be that I did not know the impact Vanessa would have on my life at the time.  But in this case, I think the Mystic reason wins the prize.  I believe I was Cosmically Blinded to prevent me from being on guard.  Let me explain.  I was certain that Prom Queen Cheryl was a Supernatural Event from the start.  Given that Cheryl was light years beyond me in terms of attractiveness, I made sure not to fall in love with her.  Seeing Cheryl as a rent-a-girlfriend Cosmic gift, I enjoyed her, but made sure not to get attached.  Given that Vanessa was light years beyond me in terms of attractiveness, I should have approached her with caution the same way.  But I didn't.  Instead I walked into this relationship with my eyes closed and my heart unguarded.  Naive and inexperienced, I was more or less defenseless as Vanessa took me to the absolute lowest point of my life.  I refer to the damage she caused as the Curse of Vanessa.  And how exactly did the Curse begin?  With a song titled Portland Woman. 

I wanna get me a Portland woman
I don't wanna be alone tonight
I wanna get me a Portland woman
Portland women treat you right
Portland's gonna be mine tonight

There is an anomaly here.  Perhaps my perceptive Readers have already noticed it.  How can someone 'miss' a Coincidence and 'notice' it at the same time?  There is a very interesting footnote to this story.  To better appreciate the twist, I need to explain why I knew the words to 'Portland Woman' in the first place.

During Graduate School, I shared an office with a student who had a fondness for progressive country rock.  As we studied, Glen played two albums over and over, one by the Eagles, one by New Riders of the Purple Sage.  I didn't mind.  I liked the music.  One day as the music played in the background, a curious thought came into my mind.  What could I talk about with a girl I met in a bar?   There were two songs, 'Take it Easy' and 'Portland Woman', that dealt with the 'Art of the Pick-Up'.  Something told me that if I knew the lines to these songs better, they might come in handy someday.  You think I am making this up, don't you?  Trust me, this is the absolute truth.

Unfortunately, there was a problem with my strategy.  I have trouble remembering song lyrics just from listening to them.  I can hum a line or so from 'Frosty the Snowman' or 'People are Strange', but that's my limit.  I know people who can hear a song and the lyrics automatically stick in their mind.  Not me.  I need to see the lyrics in order to remember them.  On a whim I began to write the lyrics longhand to 'Take it Easy' and 'Portland Woman' as the songs played in my office (I still have the page I wrote them down on).

When I was done, I memorized each word.  Considering the task took two hours, I wondered why I had wasted all this time.  Why did I go to so much trouble?  What do you think?  Don't you agree it is weird to spend two hours memorizing two songs for such a flimsy reason? 

Here is what I find interesting.  These became the only two songs I knew by heart.  Even better, the lyrics were fresh in my mind.  When I met Vanessa two weeks later, I learned she would be moving to Portland soon.  That prompted me to say Portland Woman was my favorite song.  Vanessa laughed and accused me of making this up.  After I sang her the song, Vanessa was so tickled she wrote me a letter the same day, thereby opening the door.

As one can gather, this was a very serious coincidence.  Out of all the songs in the Universe, Rick Archer only knows the words to two songs, one of which leads to a serious love affair.  So naturally I added this story to the List, right?  No!  Since I did not understand the importance at the time, the thought never crossed my mind.  40 years later I decided to write this book.  Intent on getting the story of how I met Vanessa correct, I recalled that I kept a diary.  As I reviewed the details, I was stunned to discover a mention of 'Portland Woman'. 

Wow!  How could I have forgotten this?  Thanks to the gift of Hindsight, this time I understood the powerful Impact that song had on my life.  After adding the Portland Woman story to the Supernatural List, I gave this discovery a great deal of thought.  When a curious event occurs, we have no way to know its future impact.  That is why many coincidences go unnoticed.  But in my case, my memory had been restored in a very odd way. 

Who am I to presume that I know what God is thinking?  However, I do have the right to speculate.  I have often felt guided to write this book.  What if God wanted me to include the story of the Portland Woman coincidence in my book?  A woman once wrote a book titled "Coincidence is God's Way of Staying Anonymous."

Maybe God is tired of being anonymous.  Maybe God wants me to explain how His Hidden Hand remains undetected unless one pays very careful attention.  More than likely this crazy thought is me letting my imagination get carried away.  But what if my hunch is right?  Based on this incident and others like it, God not only wants me to write this book, He wants to make sure I don't leave anything out.