Sidewalk Oracles: Weeks 9 and 10

Notes on Weeks 9 and 10 of Sidewalk Oracles by Robert Moss, Winter 2024

A Willingness to Walk the Path

Each week, I will post some general discussion, reflection, and thoughts on the chapter or “games" from the week. You are invited to share your experience with this book in the comments section.

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Basic Information

📌 We are reading Sidewalk Oracles: Playing with Signs, Symbols, and Synchronicity in Everyday Life by Robert Moss.

📅 The reading timeline outlines a slow reading (with weekly discussion posts) for anyone who wants to read along.

📌 Weekly reading notes and discussion (the timeline links to the weekly posts)

🍥 I encourage you to go into this reading with an open mind and a willingness to consider what is being described/discussed.

🧵 I use the comment area for discussions rather than a chat thread. Neither would be private because this read-along is free to everyone. You are invited to comment on comments and interact with those reading together.

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From Within the Fog, Weeks 9 and 10

In weeks 9 and 10 of our Sidewalk Oracles read-along, we read about Games 13-17, the final games in Chapter 4.

I apologize for not posting last week. For the one or two people (maybe three) still reading and commenting, I appreciate that you tucked comments into earlier weeks.

I did snap a library photo for you last week (above). I don’t know that it’s a stunner, but I think we are to be taking from all of this that, sometimes, the clue is in the unexpected, not necessarily the exceptional. (Well, maybe that’s what I’m taking from all of this. I do think Moss looks for the exceptional. He’s not really all about the everyday.)

I think license plates are proving to be an odd form of symbol for me. I noticed a vanity plate in front of me last week, and while I don’t know how the owner “intends” it to be read, I read it as a specific word. It struck me enough that I snapped a photo so I wouldn’t forget. But then, a few days later, I was deleting photos from my phone, and I saw that I’d taken a screenshot of the same word several weeks ago when it was the Dictionary.com “Word of the Day.” It isn’t a new-to-me word, but for some reason, it struck me that day, and I took a screenshot, thinking I might letter it in my journal. I had forgotten that.

Seeing the screenshot again and thinking of the license plate made me stop and wonder…. what is this word for me right now?

[This post is from a 2024 read-along. The remainder of the post has now been placed behind the paywall.]