The metaphysics of coincidence: Lent 2021, Day 35

They come thick and fast; they're impossible to overlook - coincidences. "A coincidence is a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances that have no apparent causal connection with one another". A key word here is 'remarkable' - something that bids you to make a remark about it. It is sufficiently out-of-the-ordinary as a coupling of unrelated events that make you feel urged to tell someone about it, without expecting mockery.

I mentioned physicist Richard Feynman in the context of coincidence and his famous quote "On my way to the lecture, I saw a car with the license plate ARW 357. Can you imagine? Of all the millions of license plates in the state, what was the chance that I would see that particular one tonight? Amazing!"

What would have been amazing - and maybe Prof Feynman would have come to a different conclusion - had he observed ARW 357 parked next to BSX 468 and noticed that each letter and digit was advanced exactly by one. But even had he seen these two cars and noticed the numbers - would it have meant anything to his life?

I mentioned in yesterday's post Wilko Johnson referencing William Wordsworth The Daffodils and Shakespeare's "To die to sleep, to sleep perchance to dream" quote, and then discovered that I had referred to both in my blog post of exactly one year early. What are the chances?

Well, an obvious link is the grammar-school English Literature curriculum taught in the 1960s and '70s in England included Shakespeare and Wordsworth, and so both of us would have had been exposed to them as teenagers; Wilko also (briefly) taught English at school before giving up teaching for rock'n'roll. 

But still - on that same day exactly a year apart? I'd been looking for a YouTube link for the whole of Oil City Confidential, the Julien Temple documentary about Dr Feelgood, which I wanted to see after having watched Mark Kimmel's documentary So You Wanna Be A Rock'n'Roll Star? - the same musical genre from the same part of Britain. Instead, I ended up watching The Ecstasy of Wilko Johnson and was swiftly drawn into it. Serendipity, rather than blind chance.

Today, stepping into my study/bedroom on my działka, the first book I noticed on my bookshelf (while looking for The Tao of Physics, by Fritjof Capra) was Arthur Koestler's The Roots of Coincidence. It's been a long while since I last read it - 30 or more years ago. Koestler was somewhat sidetracked by a search (fashionable at the time, in the early 1970s) for extrasensory perception (ESP). I personally consider the case for ESP to be extremely weak - and applying Newtonian tools to find what is essentially a quantum result is futile.

So a web, a lattice of coincidence exists, and these intersections should be seen as no more - but also no less - than a 'stop' sign for our conscious minds. Pull up that rushing train of thought for a second, and ponder. Seek meaning, seek relevance, look out for useful hints But don't expect Clues Where To Find The Treasure; rather take the opportunity to pause and look around. 

Several years ago, my son, travelling to university on three successive weekends, had the same seat-number on his InterCity train three times in a row - carriage 12, seat 12. (His birthday, coincidentally, is the third of December. One and two equal three.) However, no combination of 1s, 2s, 3s or 12s produced any winning lottery number that week, nor in coming weeks did anything unusual or significant involving those numbers occur to him. But should it not cause a more profound reflection?

You'll notice them if you are observant, but then you need to apply a bit of Occam's Razor and all-round intelligence to them. I see two women wearing an eye patch over their left eyes, on two consecutive days. What does it mean? Watch out for eye accidents! Take particular care for a few days; build up your muscle-memory in the eye-protection field!

Don't go out of your way to look for coincidences; but when you do notice them - don't ignore them!

This time last year:
The physical and metaphysical, science and religion

This time two years ago:
The People vs. Brexit

This time four years ago:
A leader for our times

This time five years ago:
Social justice - the Church and inequality

This time six years ago:
Google Street View comes to Poland