Funny, Random and Unlikely

You're visiting Europe, almost a third of the way around the globe from your home, and you run into someone who lives just down the street from you.

That happened to me, and I know all of you have had similarly eerie coincidental experiences.  In the same vein, Kate and I were visiting her sister in Florida, and in a boat shop we randomly started chatting with a women who turned out to have grown up in the same neighborhood  I did.  I could come up with any number of experiences like that.  Moments where, seemingly, the laws of probability are suspended and you feel as if you should run out and buy a lottery ticket.  I love these freak occurrences because they show you just how chaotic and unpredictable our universe is.

If  you really think about it you realize that the odds against something like the above happening aren't nearly as high as they'd seem.  At least from a particular perspective.  The chances of some specific coincidence happening are low, but the chances of any coincidence happening at some unnamed point are pretty good.  The odds against running into your high school sweetheart while vacationing in Guam are staggeringly high.  You probably have a better chance of hitting the Mega Millions jackpot.  But the chances that some strange coincidence happens to you in Guam are better.  Better still if you take out the Guam restriction.

It's macro versus micro.  In our lives we go lots of place and do lots of things, and so does everyone else.  Lots of other things are happening at the same time.  There are a lot of paths crossing constantly.  The odds of something weird and spooky happening around one of these intersections are very good.  You just can't remotely predict what it might be.  A similar odds scenario goes like this.  The chances of somebody winning the Maryland Lottery are very good.  People do it all the time.  But the chances that you will be that someone...not nearly so good.

The random bubbles of meaning we encounter everyday are special because they aren't predictable.  But it is predictable that something special will happen to us, and that's something worth looking forward to.