A man sits at a restaurant table. A woman sits across from him. The power goes out. They sit in darkness.
Man: I was walking to the garden today with my hoe on my shoulder. I was thinking about spinach and carrots when a group of cyclists cycled up the road. The road is over there across a field a ways – fifty yards or so – and the cyclist at the front of the line looked back and yelled over his shoulder.
Woman: What did he yell?
Man: My name.
Woman: That’s unlikely.
Man: Yeah, I know: he was like a hundred yards away from me at the time. I assume my brain was filling in the noise; you know, making meaning out of the void. I heard him yell, and my mind shaped that noise into my name.
Woman: And then you found five dollars?
Man: No, then he yelled again and said, “stop over thinking.”
Woman: Wow, that’s like… What’s the opposite of exegesis? Eye-something
Man: Eisegesis.
Woman: That’s it; you really projected yourself onto the situation.
Man: Yeah, I laughed aloud because I WAS over thinking.
Woman: And the universe yelled at you to just plant the damn spinach.
Man, defensive: Well, it is late in the season for spinach!
Woman: I appreciate how candidly your subconscious speaks with you.
Man: I don’t know; maybe I’ll plant the carrots tomorrow.
Woman: The question will be if you can learn what it is telling you.
Man: What? I was thinking about the carrots. What did you say?
The end.