| 1.3-1 Small World Coincidences |
From the moment our father's seed plants itself into our mother's nest an amazing
number of coincidences tend to occur to us in this "small world" we call home.
For instance, my godmother - Aunt Edna, who does a bit of world traveling once in a
while told me a story of a trip she took to Norway. While sightseeing she runs into
a man who looked really familiar to her. He kind of gives her a second look as if he
recognizes her too. So, they stop to talk with each other. After a few questions they
figure out that they were both from Seattle and traveling around Norway. As it
turned out, he was coincidentally her mailman. She never expected to see someone from Seattle she knew in Norway and of all people not her mailman.
As for me, I recall a strange coincidence that occurred just a year prior to my
travels. I went skiing with some work colleagues in the San Bernardino Mountains.
After a day of skiing we stood in line to catch a truck which would return us to the
parking area of the ski resort. We were in line behind a group of three fellows, one
of whom was of East Indian decent. I took notice of him because he looked and
acted very similar to a good friend of mine from college. I wished to ask him the
region of India he was from to see if he came from the same area as my friend but I
refrained from talking with him. We all rode the truck to the parking lot and we
continued following the paths of our own lives.
Exactly one week later, my parents were visiting my aunt in Los Angeles so I drove
up from San Diego to visit with them. While in LA I decided to try to see the Arsinio
Hall show. My friend from San Diego and his girlfriend met me at my aunt's house
and we went to the show. While we were standing in line to get into the show right
behind me comes the same East Indian fellow I had just seen one week ago
hundreds of miles away in the San Bernardino Mountains. I couldn't believe my
eyes. This time I stripped away my shyness and walked over to him to ask him his
name and where he was from. We exchanged names and he introduced me to the
other two fellows who had skied with him last week. They all remembered me from
the line last week and they also were very surprised at the strange coincidence of
meeting hundreds of miles apart in the same week. I was actually even more
surprised since for over three years I had lived within a mile of my friend from
college who looked like this guy and yet I never accidentally ran into him once
during that time.
The odds of the chance occurrence of two unknown persons lives passing twice in
the same week at two totally independent places, separated by a few hundred miles
in an area populated by several million persons are very, very small. But the
compounded chance that the two would even recognize each other again, well, I
don't really want to be the one to calculate it but the odds must be minuscule. But
we must remember, this is a small world and yes, it’s just a coincidence. I'm sure
each one of us has a story like one of the above. But why we do is difficult for me or
anyone to explain.
World Turned Upside Down