The secret life of George the bartender and synchronicity

My friend Rodney called me the other day because a 'synchronicity' had happened regarding a mutual friend and he just had to tell me.  That same day I had been standing in the aisle of the local Mediterranean market thinking about the same friend and I had to tell him that, I too, had had an odd experience about that same person. Then he told me that the person we both had an experience about, an old friend of ours, had passed away. Kali nihta, George…

To most of us he was simply 'George the bartender' at the Cottage bar or, to people even older than myself, at 'The Yacht Club'. Many who knew George would be surprised to know that he was a poet. That he was fiercely political and very spiritual. George was very quiet. As a teenager I would come in after working as a dishwasher at a restaurant and we used to share a shot of Ouzo after last call. A Greek tradition. George believed all things began in Greece. Once in a while, he might share a poem, often written on his receipt pad. When Rodney called and told me of his passing, I thought I’d look him up on the web to see what he might have to say.

Life is a continuous battle
with a purpose to achieve and gain.
Each day God's trials are mine to handle
regardless of difficulties and pain.
\Day in, day out, not knowing what's tomorrow
or what my fate will bring me...
But advancing ahead, more time I borrow
hoping God will bestow what I must be.
\Chasing dreams are something to aspire
and I am fervent and hopeful each day
Revitalized with new strength and desire
to always live a worthy way.

Back in 2008 I began writing a novel that I soon abandoned as it seemed so improbable that no one would read it. Soon afterward the things I wrote all started to come true. A year later I started again and, this time, it became even more unbelievable. Life continued to overtake art and when a recent worldwide tragedy happened, the synchronicities were too much and I had to tell someone. I have to tell all of you.

Next month I will be announcing the publishing of “The Fourth Choice’. It is part of a series called ‘The Surcadian Chronicles’. Really it is already online and went up on the very day George passed. Synchonicity. So many of you are in this novel, have inspired an army of characters, live in the places I write about and share my hopes and fears. So many of you have inspired me to write and so many of you have inspired me with your lives. People like George.

George, the quiet bartender at the Cottage bar introduced a sixteen year old boy to Lawrence Durrell and the Greek mystic poets. That led me to Henry Miller. That led me to Big Sur. He also spoke of the mythical  Arcadia, the politics and the struggles of the Cypriots and their island of Copper. The holiness of Cypress trees and how Greeks discovered America. He also taught me that the word for 'mystic' and 'mute' come from the Greek word 'muo'. Mystery is quiet like the night. We do not have ears to hear it but can sometimes see its wake in synchronicities. 'Quiet' is not 'silent'. It means 'only  for the mystics'; 'mueo', like George. Quiet.

All of that, somehow, helped lead me to 'Surcadia', the mythology of my writings. The seeds of my politics, poetry and personal mythos found their beginnings sitting at a bar with people like Rodney and our friend George. Rodney is not necssarily a 'synchronicity' kind of a guy and neither was George. George would probably say that Jung stole it from the Greeks. He would probably say that 'synchronicity' simply means 'together in time'. I, however, believe in synchronicities…

Chasing dreams are something to aspire
and I am fervent and hopeful each day
Revitalized with new strength and desire
to always live a worthy way.

Afharisto, old friend. Yassou and Opa…