Fate / Coincidence

I've always been a proponent of coincidence. I was never one to believe in a predetermined fate or destiny. I mean, this goes with my religious beliefs and those I don't think I should get into, because that's not what this blog is about. But what I would like to discuss is what we call "fate" or "destiny" and how it is compared to what I believe as coincidence.

For example; when I went to the Outer Banks in North Carolina for every summer, we always drove over the Ocacroke Inlet Bridge. For three consecutive years, I heard the song "Here's to the Night" by Eve 6 while we drove over that bridge. That doesn't mean that song is some how connected to the beach in any other spiritual way than pure coincidence. Now maybe that's not a good example for you.

So here's a historical coincidence; John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 and both gentleman passed on the same day, 50 years later, July 4, 1826.

But what about all those million tiny little coincidences we have all the time? I personally believe those add up to mean something more. Is it a coincidence that my roommate and I, whom I've never met before we were randomly assigned to each other in August of 2007, have the same birthday? January 5, 1989.

The story of how Stephanie and I became friends reeks of coincidence. In the early fall of 2003, the entire Freshmen class took a test, I cannot now remember what the test was for, but it is irrelevant. The seating of the test was alphabetical, and somehow we found ourselves sitting across from one another during this test. Six months later, we met through friends and hit it off socially. We would have become friends regardless of our accidental meeting, but it's an interesting nonetheless.

There are many coincidences in all of our lives. John Littlewood, a Mathematics professor of Cambridge, has said, "...in the course of any normal person's life, miracles happen at a rate of roughly one per month." I take this to mean that of all the people in this world and of all the things that happen to us, there are little miracles in our lives that aren't able to be explained. Coincidence? I think so.