Larryversary

Larry, David, Joe, Mark, and me at City Tap Room that fateful day

"I do not believe in meaningless coincidences. I believe every coincidence is a message, a clue about a particular facet of our lives that requires our attention." Deepak Chopra

Sometimes synchronicity is subtle. If you aren't paying attention, you might miss the clues the universe is giving to you. Other times, the powers of coincidence hit you over the head with a bottle (of beer). This weekend is our Larryversary, the anniversary of the day we met Larry. It isn't everyday that you meet someone and it is so momentous as to cause a ripple in the fabric of the universe. But that is what this was. Put it another way--Larry was an inevitability.

June 9, 2013. We had finally made it to the month of June, the month we would be moving into our Arden home. We had been living with Mark's parents for about six weeks because we were between houses. We weren't exactly stir crazy, not being in our own digs, but we liked to find things to do away from the house. As much to give Mark's parents a break as it was for our own good. It was Philly beer week and we had perused the website to choose one event of the 611 possible events. We chose to go to Local 44 near Drexel for their Russian River event. We especially wanted to try Pliny the Elder. The place opened at 11, but we wanted to get there early to make sure we got our quarry. Nothing worse than driving over an hour to Philly for a specific beer and then being told it had kicked. We parked the car at 10:30 and walked to stand in line to wait for Local 44 to open. And we could see that a line had indeed started to form.

As we walked up, Mark said, "Is that David with Joe?" I squinted. It sure looked like them. Sure enough, when we got closer, we saw that we would be standing in line directly behind David, our friend and the husband of our Arden realtor, and Joe, the guy from whom we were buying our house. It was a crazy coincidence; we couldn't have planned to arrive behind them in line like that if we had tried. That's when they introduced us to the other guy in their group--Larry Strange. Maybe we should call this our Strange-aversary. David had been the one to invite Larry and Joe on this outing. He knew Joe, but not well. Joe was more a friend of his wife, Cynthia. And though Larry lived across the memorial garden from David and Cynthia, they didn't know him well. They were new acquaintances. That was all about to change. I didn't realize it, but what I was witnessing was the start of the Fab 4, the core group of friends that would make up Mark's circle, perhaps the first circle of male friends he has had his whole adult life.

We got the last five seats at the bar when Local 44 opened. We ordered our Pliny, followed by Blind Pig, and Racer 5. We had some tastes of Russian River sours for which our palates were unprepared. We had poutine and other pub fare--and all of this before noon. While we drank and ate, we learned that Larry had children the same ages as our kids, with one heading to college in the fall, just as we had. He was an IT guy married to a fabric artist for almost 24 years. (We had been married 23 years)  Wow! Lots of crazy coincidences. When our bill came, the total was considerably less than expected, but we had had such a time getting the bill--the place was packed--that we paid it "as is" and tipped well. Perhaps, we shouldn't have, but we chalked up the cheap eats to the good fortune of the day as it had played out so far.

Out in the hot sunshine of the June day, Larry told us about this cool building that was open as part of Hidden City. The building, a long abandoned performance hall, was near where Larry used to have his business, and he had always wanted to see inside. Hidden City had allowed artists access the site, and using anything they found there, they had created an art installation. The concept was intriguing to me. I had a beer buzz, so I am not saying that I was one top of my game. We were in no hurry to get home. Sure! We're game! What we didn't know is that we were about to embark on our first Strange Adventure. 

Strange Adventures is the name of our hiking group that meets on Sunday mornings starting in September of 2013. That was three months into the future and after we had gotten to know Larry a little better. That June day, however, we didn't know of Larry's curiosity about city spaces and his penchant for trespassing. We didn't know that he knew the city like the back of his hand. I was in flip-flops as I followed him and the others through a hot labyrinth of streets that were strange to me. Along the way, Larry pointed out things like the closed abortion clinic whose doctor had just been convicted of murder. How is it that I am following some man I just met around the streets of Philadelphia to go see the inside of an abandoned building?  This was not how I saw my day playing out when I had awoken that morning.

Installation in Kingdom Hall of Pythagorus

Two miles and a few blisters later, we arrived at the building on Lancaster Ave. It was orange with sculpted details that hinted at past grandeur. The artists who had transformed the space had made a story to accompany the installation. This was the lodge of the followers of Pythagorus, perhaps something like the Masons crossed with something out of Indiana Jones. The Kingdom Hall of Pythagorus was a temple to mathematics, geometry, and the triangle. I myself, am a student of sacred geometry, so I was mesmerized by the installations in this abandoned building. Room after room of echoed triangles and eerily beautiful constructions. Some played with light. Others played with perspective and tilt. Each corner contained something unexpected. It wasn't like I had found my church, but it did feel like I had found my people. We were moving to a place where folks looked for gems like this to experience. 

 We walked back to our cars with a stop at another Philly Beer Fest venue to quench our thirst. We toasted to our adventure and ignored a few phone calls from Joe's wife, Keri. (Apparently, Joe was supposed to be helping her pack boxes so they could move out of the house we were moving into.) We had no idea that this was our new Sunday ritual, following Larry to intriguing places in the city and in nature. We didn't know that pubs and beer would play their part--so much so that these four men would start brewing beer together. Mark didn't know that these would be his best buds, but it did feel like something. If I felt as though there was a message in the day's coincidence, it was that Mark and I were on the right path to home. The universe was rewarding us for our risk to move to Arden. 

Installation in Kingdom Hall of Pythagorus

Tomorrow, Mark will be recreating the trek to Local 44 with part of our hiking group. Although I would love to go, I am not as enamored with the Beer Fest crowds. I went last year. I will bow out this year knowing that Mark will celebrate enough for both of us. I am going to go instead on a local hike with some of the women in our group and to see Steel Magnolias, playing at the Candlelight Theater. But I will raise a glass to Larry and wish him a happy day. I wonder if he calls it his Jillaversary.