On Coincidences

The folk tale goes that the life of Abraham Lincoln's son was saved by the son of John Wilkes Booth. It was entirely coincidence that their fathers would be participants in the most famous assassination attempt since the days of Et tu, Brute.

Coincidences, as the movie Magnolia states, happen all the time. I take it on faith that there are so many interconnections in our lives that if we possessed the cognitive faculties to recognize a tenth of them we'd probably go catatonic just to keep so much detail out. There's just so much that overlaps amongst our tiny little lives that its hard for stuff to not have some relation to something else.

I am very glad for the gift of ignorance sometimes. There are some coincidences best left unlearned, some secrets best left hidden.

For a better movie than Magnolia based on the concept of coincidence, try to track down The Pigeon Egg Strategy.