Synchronicity

A friend asked me today if I am not a believer in synchronicity. My answer is that yes, I do. It's happened to me often. I don't know if it has meaning or purpose. I'm agnostic, or even more than agnostic about that.

I am a great believer in coincidence. Sometimes amazing coincidence. When it's good, it's serendipitous. But there is that six degrees of Kevin Bacon thing and there are sound mathematical reasons for some apparent amazing coincidences.

I don't know about psychic energies creating such. Not sure at all. I am a big fan of science and empiricism and credible scientists have little to say about psychic energy. Although quantum physics, from what I've heard about it, sounds pretty mystical.

Here's an interesting set of circumstances that happened only a few weeks ago.

I was in the hardware store looking to buy a step ladder and was on my cell bullshitting with this very person who asked me the synchronicity question of earlier today. He asked where I was and I told him where I was and what I was there for. As I learned at that moment, he is, apparently, a leading authority on ladders, and he recommended the very brand and model that was there before me. He explained in depth his several reasons and theories about ladderdom, and so I'm sure he helped me make the right choice.

I had planned on buying a shorter size and the 8 footer my friend recommended wouldn't fit into my sedan. A guy in a wheelchair next to me in the parking lot, who had to hoist himself into the cab of his truck, made a comment or two and I joked about me putting it in the back of his flatbed and having him follow me to my house. He said he would be glad to. I joked that I only lived 20 miles away and, surprisingly, he said his offer was still good. I told him that I actually didn't live that far. He told me he was going home and described his route. I told him my home was right along the way and that I accept his offer. He asked the address we were going to in case we lost each other. I told him and he said he knew the street. He explained that when he was in high school in the early 70s he had dated a girl who lived on my street. He told me her name and it was the daughter of the previous owner of our house. My wife is friends with her sister who used to live next door when we first moved there.

The dude had been to my house before it was my house!

So, with a good deal of trust and confidence, I put the ladder on his flatbed, and he drove it to my house for me! I don't usually have strangers in parking lots deliver my large household purchases. In fact, I never do.