Confluence in Romance and Friendship-Hollywood's Golden Couples Part 2/Tracy and Hepburn and Bogie and Bacall

What a mouthful that title is! However in this post I want to show you that the brand new concept from 'Life Cycles' known as 'Confluence' is designed to be applied to relationships generally and this can include both romance and friendship. In fact once you get the hang of it, you can start to apply it in all areas of your life. The essence is that if you share time with others in your respective 'significant years' (i.e. 7/12/19/24/31/36 etc.) then you are going through your mutual dramas together. This can produce heightened empathy, or even in some cases magnify the degree of dislike, but in most cases it is a bonding experience. Let's go back to Hollywood's golden couples and see how it worked for another very famous duo :- Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn.


Spencer Tracy was born 5th. April, 1900 and was one of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age. Oh yes, I couldn't help myself and when I checked out his most important, mid-life, age 36 'Year of Revolution', I once again noted :- that it corresponded with the making of the movie 'Fury', which was his first major success. It was written that :- "audiences, who just a year ago had no clear handle on him, were suddenly turning out to see him. It was a transition that was nothing short of miraculous...". Of course I would say, that 'Life Cycles' evidence is nothing short of miraculous (I often study just this one year in a person's whole life) and that one day people will turn out in droves to discover it for themselves. In terms of his personal life however, his marriage to actress Louise Treadwell was troubled, including separations and affairs with leading ladies. This all changed when he met Katherine Hepburn and they began a relationship that lasted till his death 26 years later. Katherine was born 12th May, 1907, so this means that she and Tracy were 'Confluent' for every one of his 'Years of Broken Pathways' and her 'Years of Revolution' (i.e.when he was aged 7/19/31/43/55/death at 67; she was aged birth/12/24/36/48/60). Almost all of the year included the joint period of 12th, May (her birthday) to 5th, April (his birthday) in the next year. This saw him facing a challenge and direction change, while she faced an upheaval and new direction. No more poignant illustration of this, is that in the final short period of 'Confluence' at 60/67, she did not attend his funeral out of respect for his family, as he had never divorced and tried to keep their relationship secret. She drove behind his hearse however, but once it reached it's destination, she pulled away.

Much more could be said about their relationship and I will say it in a future book devoted just to 'Confluence', but now I want to turn to the second aspect of the term. You see it applies equally to relationships in general. So you can go and check out if your best friend's 'Confluent' with you (or write to me if you can't work it out). Well let me provide the 'seamless link' to last month's post and talk about Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart. Bogart was born 25th. December, 1899, so that means that he and Spencer were 'Confluent' for every combined 'significant year' from 5th, April to 25th, December. They were thrown together in the earliest stages of their Hollywood careers with the making of the movie 'Up The River' in 1930. Bogart liked and admired Tracy and they became good friends and drinking buddies. It was Tracy who gave him the nickname of 'Bogie'. It was in their combined age 36 'Years of Revolution' that they first made their names in the 'big league'. In fact, if they were alive today, it would have been called a 'bromance'. Now let's not stop there for all four of the two couples were 'Confluent' i.e. Bogie and Bacall and Tracy and Hepburn. Did they 'hit it off'? The answer is 'definitely yes'. Bogie and Hepburn made the movie 'The African Queen' together in 1951 and the two couples were also great friends and shared a similarity in their clandestine relationships (at least in the early days of Bogart and Bacall).

I'll leave you to contemplate all this at your leisure as you've never read anything like this before. I hope you are enjoying 'a walk down memory lane' as I am too and we'll tackle another one of the most famous Hollywood couples in the next post. Till then :- "may the cycles always bring you good fortune".