April 7, 2008
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What is a coincidence anyway?
This is probably my favorite topic to analyze, as it continues to fascinate me. Saying something is just a “coincidence” is not a good enough explanation for me. Defined as a noteworthy alignment of two or more events or circumstances without obvious causal connection, a coincidence is said to be something simple. Something you can shrug off. However, I believe there is a deeper explanation.
Take my favorite movie, I Heart Huckabees, for example. Most people do not understand this movie the first time around. However it is fascinating when you -do- understand the message. The plot is about a man who wants to “solve his coincidence”. Eventually, it evolves to answer the question of “why am I here?”. This is attempted to be solved with a theory of universal interconnectivity. Or, why coincidences happen- because everything is connected in the first place
Another example is the book and movie Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, which is answering the ultimate question of why we exist by a series of “meaningless coincidences”. Same concept as I Heart Huckabees, except it relies on a much “higher up being” in power.
Or you could take it a step further with a real life example I just read in the news, about a man who received a heart transplant. This heart came from a donor who had died by killing himself by a gunshot wound to the head. The man who received his heart ended up marrying the dead donor’s widow. (coincidence?) However, this man who had received the heart and married the donor’s widow has just recently died. How? By killing himself by a gunshot wound to the head. Coincidence?
Even further, with my real life recent example. I somehow run into my professor at the grocery store more times than I run into anyone on mere “coincidence” in this town. It’s funny and we laugh about it but it makes me wonder why?
What are the causes for such odd and fascinating things? Some people may say there is a cause for everything, which there certainly is for most things. (Example: My friend and I both have the same exact flowers by our mailboxes in our yard- reason: a group of girl scouts volunteered to plant flowers for one dollar by mailboxes in 2005) But I am talking about a small example of my professor and I running into each other at the grocery store. It definitely has not been at similar times. I do change up my grocery stores. And it has not been connected to -anything- I can think of. She also does not live close to the store, she does not go everyday (just on the days I do apparently) and we do not go on every tuesday or something. It has been random days of the week. Thus, I find no explanation. That I would call a coincidence.
Is there some higher power with a plan? Some people reason with this ideology.
However, I take the I Heart Huckabees approach that everything is connected. How? I use my own logic. Our existence is of molecules connecting everything in the world. Of course you know that atoms and molecules make every tangible material in the universe. They are what make matter possible. I use this in the way that when something becomes connected, it stimulates these atoms and molecules, creating a reaction within us. For example: have you ever “felt” someone looking at you? Or thought of someone and they called you? Or felt comforted just by someone “being around you”. I feel like once the molecules and atoms recieve such stimulus they want it more and more and thus, it creates coincidences. Or what we think are coincidences.
That is one explaination. Then you get the unexplainable things such as a man who receives a heart transplant and dies the same way as his donor. How does that happen?
Everything is connected somehow, but this I would not know how to explain. It makes you wonder though, what is out there, why are we here, what are the chances, and if something higher exists.
What do you all think?
Comments (193)
you still up Kate?! everything matters. I think its pretty much all connected. ryc thanks for your input. space is what I have been giving. as hard as that has been to do. been thinking about an update on the whole thing. I have some additional thoughts. maybe in the next couple of days.
tim
it seems like all of our lives revolve around these sorts of questions. i mean why are we here? are we connected in soem way? does kevin bacon really fit within 6 degrees of all of us? (as a sidenote, im within 3 degrees of him.)? all in all i think we are more interconnected than we let on. ive had a lot of those moments where im thinking about someone and BAM, they call 2 minutes later. ive also been able to finish peoples sentences, and pick up on their feelings when not even in the same area as them. its odd how that works out and really fascinating. the real question then becomes – how deep of a connection do we have…
aww i miss you too. i promise to come back soon. as soon as summer starts cuz i am soo busy right now. blah…i need to learn balance. your post made me think a lot. so i’ll get back to you on it. hehe.
HEY MAN OH YOU GET IN MIND loops too don’t you, aren’t they just GREAT??!?!?!? OOH But well all i have to say about your thing is, WHATEver the hell this all is it’s fucking FUCKED and FUCKING FANTASTIC THAT it even IS, isn’t it?!?!?!?!?!? well if you want to know what i think, i dont think that anything happens for a higher meaning. i think this here is just a whole bunch of shit that IS for idontknowwhatthefuck, and coincidences are perhaps little numerical patterns that line up or something i dont know.
Wow, that’s a really unique way of looking at things, both what I said and what you said in here. It’s refreshing (:
And to answer your question, everything matters.
First off…love your handwriting.
Second off…you make me think too much, haha. This kind of post is what gets me thinking about all kinds of stuff and makes me all depressed, so I don’t like to think about it. It makes you have to have faith in something though. Because you get back to the…well, if nothing is created or destroyed, then where did it all come from and where is it all going(since heat energy that is produced cannot be recovered). And you start to feel really insignificant as a person, as the human race, as part of the planet Earth. And that, obviously, is why I try to avoid thinking about all of that, because if I do that, I get depressed because I feel so small and meaningless…and…yeah.
Third off…your comment. I know! I feel like we’ve barely been talking at all for the past year or so. It sucks. It also sucks that the vast majority of my friends are out-of-state…at least multiple hours away. Ugh. All of the people that know me, that I can open up to…are at least 2.5 hours away.
i’ve always pondered coincidences as well. i am a strong believer that everything happens for a reason, and because of that belief, coincidences fascinate me. being a somewhat religious person, I like to think that coincidences show us God’s work in our lives and how (like you said) we are all connected.
(lol and being philosophical is a good thing! most of the time anyway… lol)
Great post! I’m always a firm believer in the fact that NOTHING is random, there’s a connection to everything, we just may not see it. I don’t think things are a coincidence, we just can’t find the path for these things to happen. One thing leads to another. And everything happens for a reason. Interesting points.
Also, thanks for the comment, and the recommendation!
Ooh, that’s a fun topic.
I think there are coincidences, but I think God has alot to do with some coincidences – I think he makes ‘crazy’ things happen for a reason and stuff. Like, you fly to a city and know ONE person there and they don’t know you’re coming, and you get out of the airport and they’re the first person you meet, or something. I don’t know.
Good post.
And thanks for what you said. I definitely don’t think my posts are full of life and energy, but it’s nice to hear!!
i guess you didn’t notice my sunburn. haa.
i’m going to read this and comment it later once i have time. promise. it looks interesting. (:
no fate.
I believe there’s a reason for EVERYTHING. Enjoyed your post.
coincidences play a large part in romances.. . and people often take it to the next step — don’t believe that it was just mere coincidence. perhaps its not.
that is a cute graffiti =D ack molecules affecting each other. too nerdy xD. That could be a plausible reason….or ENTROPY!!!! the chaos of the world brings people together and causes unthinkable things to happen at the same time.
Hello Ms. Kate,
You worked hard to make your site fancy and elegant. The pictures are a nice touch. I see that you have a wide variety of interests and observations here!
I want to help people to really get to know know God and His plans for us, especially in these troubled times. 9 “The land is filled with blood, and the city is full of wrongdoing. For they say, ‘The Lord has left the land, and the Lord does not see.’ 10 But as for Me, My eye will have no pity, and I will not leave any sinner without punishment. I will bring their wrong-doing upon their own heads.” (Ezekiel 9:9-10)
I like to write articles about God and religion on my site. I hope you get a chance to look at them.
Ah, but if a coincidence is defined as “a noteworthy alignment of two or more events or circumstances without obvious causal connection” and you explain the connection does that mean it is still a coincidence? If it is explainable does that mean it was ever really a coincidence, or just that much like the learning we do in school, it was something we simply hadn’t learned/understood yet.
Or countering with your professor. Sure it could be due to coincidence, or especially with them not living close, it could just be that the free time in your schedules lines up. Which you both allow to happen as you only shop as you have free time/need something as opposed to having a regular time/place.
I would agree everything is connected, after all through each other all things can communicate. The question is not can they, but did they communicate in that case. Which just like two people keeping a secret, maybe the only way to know of the communication is if you were involved in it.
I liked this post. While the topic was interesting, liking the post was more about likely that your thoughts were thought provoking and your writing style kinda hooks a person.
nice graffiti! i’m a sucker for anything with hearts.
where is the giraffe?? This is a cute giraffe….obese giraffe!
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/63/170804136_a90c9f56ba.jpg
Everything is connect, yes but too a point. A transit value of equlity is the highguard of…something. The universe gos to infinite or at least I think so…alas it probably does go to infinte.
I think some things are meant to happen. Have you seen the movie ‘Signs’? It kinda discusses the same thing- coincidences or fate. I guess I believe in a little bit of both.
I’m a big believer in fate. I definitely think people’s paths cross for a reason.
Nice post, these thoughts cross my mind all the time! Coincidence?!
front page stuff Kate!!! congrats.
i always thought of this too. but it gives me a headache so i dont think about it too much. but good post. i like to believe everything is connected. if two people are both wanting to see each other badly enough, coincidence will bring them together. everything happens for a reason. props on getting featured =] the heart transplant guys ; how freaky! lol
sounds like something I would say too.
just stating that there’s a higher power does not do enough for me.
“Does everything matter or nothing matter at all?”
Very oxymoronic!
I certainly didn’t understand I Heart Huckabees the first time I saw it (same thing with Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe). I do believe that everything happens for a reason though and that everything is interconnected even if you can’t find an explanation for it.
I like the font you used your in post! I assumed that its your handwriting because the heart seems like it was drawn on one of those stylus pads (I forgot the name of those things >_<).
i have the tendency to focus on the “written” wordings then those being typed. hahaha.
I think things happen in life for a reason.
so i read the title of the blog on the xanga frontpage. i accidently read “what is confidence anyway?”
i read through the post asking myself, when does it get to the confidence part.
silly me.
did you ever think your professor is stalking you? creepy!
Im a firm believer in fate!
Xo
i believe happens for a reason
Bravo! You just hit on one of my favorite topics to discuss. In my opinion (of which i was unknowingly robbed by a comic book) is “there is no coincidence, but only the illusion of consequence”.
i believe that there are certain occurrences thats chances of probability are near impossible which mean that instead of an accidental occurrence that there was a reason for that specific event.
To have a belief as that, i also have to have certain other beliefs such as the existence of energy. I believe that through energy every coincidence, occurrence, and person are intertwined, similarly to what you said.
i feel that everything happens for a reason whether it be a person walking passed you stemming a stream of good or bad luck towards you, a relative dying, or even down to a simple conversation just to keep an order and balance through the universe.
you may find interest in my idea of Traveling Infiniti. you can read about it on my myspace blog
myspace.com/thiscrazyme
i believe everything becomes an influential part of an equation so complex, like reading the Mahabrata in a lifetime and knowing it all, we are only on the tenth page with our study of the genome itself…we too have had such a coincidence in the field, that is, should you believe in something greater than the self ownership of thought, that is, somehow, we all influence each other, like, you might have had a million dollar idea years ago…the funny thing is, someone else, maybe several people also have this same million dollar idea…just they did something about it right then to claim their artificial ownership of it which allows them to have money, which is an artificial agreement of value that is imposed upon a larger whole by a governing and deciding few…much like sheeple and a few shepherds, and you betcha, they can get a little bestial with their sheep, and still eat them live..
this thought though, there is not but a few people who have not stood there and regetted watching the television as they saw their idea, yes, their idea belonging to someone else…even the idea is not really revolutionary, it is who acts on it first…that person is called the “inventor” while the other shared parties have a pocket full of coincidence….
welcome to the field
Hmmm what a very novel idea that everything is connected! It would be really lovely if it were all true! But then again, I do believe in the 6 degrees of separation. It seems no matter how randomly I meet someone, they know someone who knows someone who knows me…weird! =)
dunno why coincidences happen, but they sure make for interesting brain fodder, as you have shown in this post
i have it on my page too)
(and yay, i heart graffiti
I believe that I have a specific weight. This weight is related to the mind, and it’s ability to change certain things about the universe simply by discerning them one way or another.
I also believe that while I have this characteristic of weight, so does every other being in the universe. Their weights act against mine, things are expected to be a certain way, so they are.
It’s like a cosmic vote. Majority rules, except not everyone’s vote has exactly the same weight. Those who develop a true certainty, who pour all their energies into absolute certainty of one thing, over God knows how long, have more weight. Call it faith in God, love, human nature, or the unshakable stillness within. These people have just a little more power over us all.
It’s not always easy to become this way. If you’re not the type the rest of the world would expect to be great, you’re fighting the status quo. It’s like walking up a sand dune that’s steeper at the bottom. You can’t stop trying to be certain of that thing, or you end up right back where you started, sometimes you’ll slip and fall, but it gets easier as you go.
But what’s the reason for climbing the dune? Do you really want that kind of control? Are you worthy of it? The answer is always “maybe I will when I get there” or a flat “no”. It might seem like a silly goal, but it’s not. Only the reasons are silly, you’ll probably discard them along the way. They only get you so far. What you really want is just to greet the sun on equal footing.
beautiful site – love this lavender, it’s so soothing and romantic! something i heard somewhere once: coincidences are God’s way of remaining anonymous.
If I remember right, the Answer to the ultimate question was 42.
Makes sense to me. :p
congrats on being featured!
Lovely graffiti to go with an insightful post. eprops
Maybe.
that is so insightful.
Is it just a coincidence that you are missing your birthay, once every two years?
The power of suggestion is all that ‘proves’ something higher exists, which I’m sorry to announce, it does not. Hope I’ve cleared that up.
Existential detectives.
I knew I was gonna like that movie the second I saw Dustin Hoffman’s job.
That was a very interesting read. And the picture is too cute.
nice
I believe in coincedences… I just don’t always trust them.
I believe that most things are connected… that’s the way God designed it. His hand is at work in everything.
As for the men who shot themself, the connecting factor is the wife. Apparently she drove them to shoot themselves! haha!
you might enjoy reading up about entangled particles, whose states are linked together even when the particles are separated from each other. i’m not sure if i would go so far as to say that coincidences are caused on such an atomic or subatomic level, but i do think we are all connected somehow. as for all those questions you posed, i think douglas adams had it right — the answer to the question of life, the universe, and everything is 42… the problem is nobody knows the question.
I love this. And I love that you were featured with something profound. We don’t get that enough.
I completely agree with you! I believe that there is no such thing as a “coincidence”; there is a deeper meaning to what we consider “coincidences”. However, we may never know what those deeper meanings are.
“The Celestine Prophecy” is a novel that’s all about this stuff. I think you’d enjoy it!
you are a featured webblog. ha. I didn’t know if you knew that or not.
<3
1) Wonderful prose.
2) Very, very thoughtful post.
3) I’m still convinced that most coincidences have no “higher” significance, although the human mind has great difficulty coping with their occurrence.
4) I’m even more convinced that the woman in the heart transplant example should be quarantined for the sake of mankind.
Hey, I enjoyed reading your post!! I haven’t seen I Heart Huckabees but I have added it to my “must rent” list.
I agree that everything is connected. Everything happens for a reason. Now I just have one question to spin… If we believe everything is connected and everything happens for a reason. Somewhere deep down, energy focusing and bring what we desire and need closer for whatever reason….. is that mere coincidence?? A meeting happening by accident, or the coming together of people who were listening to that deeper connection?
To close, if you haven’t seen What the Bleep Do We Know? it is a good movie that sheds some light on the we are all atoms thing.
This is such an adorable picture!! I wish I could tape it to my wall. *sigh.
Hey, I enjoyed reading your post!! I haven’t seen I Heart Huckabees but I have added it to my “must rent” list.
I agree that everything is connected. Everything happens for a reason. Now I just have one question to spin… If we believe everything is connected and everything happens for a reason. Somewhere deep down, energy focusing and bring what we desire and need closer for whatever reason….. is that mere coincidence?? A meeting happening by accident, or the coming together of people who were listening to that deeper connection?
To close, if you haven’t seen What the Bleep Do We Know? it is a good movie that sheds some light on the we are all atoms thing.
Sorry, I thought it didn’t go through the first time…
Wow, you just made me think about coincidences now.
I really like the way you put your own handwriting into the blog – very classy. And personally I believe in a higher power, and he is totally coordinating every single thing that happens here, no matter how big or how small. If you believe in evolution, you could even look at the coincidence that those molecules came together to make amino acids, or later the coincidence that the fish started growing little nubs that thousands, millions of years later became legs. I don’t personally believe that’s the way it happened, but I do think that this whole lovely world is just too complicated to be a series of coincidences. I think there HAS to be a higher power to explain all this, including the odd coincidences like seeing your professor in the grocery store.
I think if you get your understanding of the meaning of life from pop culture, like the movie you mentioned, well….then good luck.
dude. there are 6.5 billion people in this world, and an infinite number of things happening at any given point in time. “coincidence” is just that.. coincidence.
great post, by the way.
@penguinsXandXpancakes -
oh, if you need to visit my blog, it’s “porcupinesol” — i happen to be on my other xanga. oops.
What’s that theory about an infinite universe? Something like “in an infinite universe with infinite possibilities, every possibility is not only likely to happen but will happen” (you get the idea). I think coincidences are just that… random chance events that are bound to happen given how much is happening out there all at once and together…
Wow!! it’s so coincidental that you posted this entry when i was trying to know more about things that happened coincidentally. Anyway, i read from somewhere that “coincidences are God’s way of remaining anonymous”. Thanks for this interesting post! =)
I think this was a really great post. I also believe everything happens for a reason. But the higher power theroy works for me to some extent.
Everything in the finite observable universe is connected, somehow, and to me this goes beyond “belief” to something self-evident and easy to prove. Since we have no way of knowing whether anything exists beyond what we can observe, it’s okay, I think, to assume that “everything” is connected. Everything that people ordinarily call “coincidence” is connected, anyway.
Interesting way of looking at things ^^
hello,
didn’t you know that there are people such as I who are naturally lucky?
I must disagree with the denial of the coïncidence.
That’s interesting about the donor thing. Do you have a link to that story? I’d like to read more about it.
Loved the post, I often think about things like this as well. Nice perspective. Kudos.
i think everything happens for a reason. there are too many instances where paths cross for no other reason than fate.
Great piece. I have to agree that everything is connected, at least to some degree. I cannot hold onto the coincidence idea at all. I like to have some reason for why such moments in life happen.
Well written, and very insightful.
Cheers,
Skylar
GREAT post!! One of the Sanskrit meanings of “Tantra”, (NO–despite what MOST westerners believe, Tantra is NOT “sex and drugs”!!) is a “web–tying everything in the universe together. The BEST book that describes this is Georg Feuerstein’s “Tantra: The Path to Ecstasy” , (AGAIN–this is NOT @ sex…) and Pandit Rajmani Tigunait’s “Tantra: Unveiled”
I believe that everyone and everything are intrically connected by their energies–and, NO–there are NO “coincidences”–there is a reason for everything–even our thoughts…
–an “older” lady with a few wrinkles of experience
Hey, just wanted to say hi! From your profile I see we have some things in common, like being from the midwest (I’m from Sioux Falls, SD and go to school at UND) and loving tennis! To comment on your post….very thought-provoking….I really want to see I Heart Huckabees….and I believe in God and believe that coincidences are God’s way of working things out in crazy ways, just so that we smile….I love coincidences, they are fun!
It is both controllable and uncontrollable, that is the part that drives me crazy!
From Jung’s Synchronicity to quantum physics, it is all connected.
Coincidences could be just that- coincidences. They could also be the result of the mind playing tricks [much as it does when we're sleeping], noticing certain things more than others [you've seen your professor many times, at different o'clocks and different shops, but how can you be sure there aren't an equal number of times that you've seen a stranger? And are you sure she's not stalking you?], and the amount of times you’ve thought of someone and they haven’t phoned you two minutes later must be exceedingly high! It could just be that we’ve all lived this life before.
Not that I don’t like the idea of coincidences because I do. I’m just thinking beyond.
Also, I’m not sure that I’d class the transplant story as one about coincidence – that goes far deeper, into the realm of whether or not we can survive through our organs/other body parts after death. There are many incidences of this where people’s tastes change or they’re attracted to a different sort of person than before the transplant. If somehow our very essence is ingrained into our organs then it is feasible that we would alter the essence of another once we became a donor and became a part of their body.
A very complex post
.
I think in a way everything is connected and for some reason, that thought is very comforting to me.
Hmm. I think either way works. And I think, for the heart transplant story, the problem lies either within the heart, or, more possibly, the widow. She sure is a heck of a woman, making two men die. Sorry, I don’t mean to be mean.
@StewieIsMyHero - just a heads up, its linked in the entry
Your post was good and thought-provoking, but I disagree with the idea that either everything matters or nothing matters. Sometimes I believe that there is some purpose behind a coincidence. But there are also simply coincidences. Or we may use ex post facto logic to say that there was a purpose. We may come up with a reason after the fact that makes sense, but didn’t actually have any influence on the actual event…Just some thoughts.
@lyricsninja - Good call, thanks!!
Interesting blog about coincidences. I think that yeah things do happen for a reason but everything isn’t based on coincidences. I think that our choices that we make in life bring together these things and it just so happens that sometimes it is coincidence. It’s not a matter of coincidence but of fate and maybe our life is just planned out for us in that way. Some people like to believe that we as humans already have our own individual plan, that everything is set in life for us already, but then the rest of them like to believe that no we take advantage of our life and we are the onces that plan out our destiny. How we do we answer that question? I guess it all depends on what you believe, because different beliefs lead to different answers and so there is never the “right” answer to things. These are just my 2 cents.
Interesting post! I believe that everything is connected. Like for instance, during my first day of college, I met two new friends that I later learned that they are actually friends with my promdate’s group of friends! I find it really cool. I believe things do happen for a reason. It’s all because of fate, it’s like everything’s planned out already for you. It’s just waiting to happen.
Btw, I was supposed to write something about “connections” hahaha… Hmmm, coincidence??
There’s no such thing as coincidence. Only inevitability. =)
yes, i think everything matters. & i agree with what you said about coincidences :]
I think you’re on to something.
really enjoyed your post! on good days for me everything matters! when its cloudy i want to believe that nothing matters, but that would be a lie.
I was at work in training. We were working financial issues, and 4 different prople with 4 different situations ended up with the same number 134. I bought a lottery ticket next day playing 134, only 341 came up instead. So I only wont $40, instead of the $290. But I am $40 richer. DaddyO
i wonder about that too sometimes and I don’t really think anything is a coincidence!!!
have you seen serendipity? thats about fate. things happen for a reason =] I want to see i heart huckabees though!
coinedence- n. when God choses to remain anonymous.
GrEaT bLoG!
What happened to the man with the heart transplant doesn’t seem like it could be just coincidence. It practically sounds like cosmic irony.
Then again, it could be the outcome of the mathematical probability that such a thing would happen.
But personally, I think everything has a reason.
i think everything happens for a reason…. but hey thats just my opinion. really cute site ^^
I really heart your picture at top, did you draw it? By mouse? Or stylus like me?
hey what up
Hey, congrats on getting featured! You changed your profile pic, and I didn’t realize it was you, but now I remember =].
On the subject of coincidences and fate, I haven’t read the books or the movie you mentioned in your post, but I have to side with the more scientific explanation for things which is that there is no such thing as fate.
Thanks for stopping by my site..I TOTALLY believe in things happening like that… I haven’t seen the movie I Heart Huckabees, but now I am going to..I believe that things are interconnected and that is why I don’t understand when people get in disagreements over what Faith is better then another…etc…awesome post…
It’s not really a big coincidence that the heart recipient died the same way his donor did… if he knew how his donor died and then just decided to kill himself too.
right…?
It’s not really a big coincidence that the heart recipient died the same way his donor did… if he knew how his donor died and then just decided to kill himself too.
right…?
Very interesting, I’ve never looked at it that way.
Wow! you are a very bright young woman. Your ‘gears’ certainly turn just a little bit different a little bit stronger than most I encounter. Incidentally, the more I look around here at Xanga, the more I’m surprised of the overall intelligence here–very impressive.
I lament that I cannot grace this white box with a dazzling genius answer to your question…although, ….hmmmm…reading a bit closer I can see the question is’nt seeking such an answer-no, your question is seeking any anwers; it’s closed question. Okay-
Well, this turned out to be a favorable coincidence-before I began writing this I knew I was’nt going to be able to answer the question, now I know why.
Cheers,
Cedric
P.S. At first, I did’nt even have an obvious casual connetion with your weblog. Then as I involved myself with your post, I began to have a subtle casual connection. Now, I’m peeved because I must formally disconnect from this comment box-obviously!
We are back in the town again, to hold another hot round party. Just two weeks ago, we had so much fun. Hurry up, join our wild party, I am telling you that there are so many pals are waiting for you. It’s gonna be massive. Not sure about the party details? That’s not a problem, come to http://www.goSexyDate.com leave your details especially the location. You can also see the photos we’ve taken from last party. See you there and have fun!
Featured weblog – Holy crap, 100 comments!!
But I didn’t have to run in my meet today, so all is well.
Stupid track.
I like the molecule theory. Couldn’t it also be on an even smaller level such as the force that holds the atom together? The coincidence seems that they occur more often with things that are in closer proximity. That said you have the whole 6 degrees of separation thing happening so everything is possible.
I like the molecule theory. Couldn’t it also be on an even smaller level such as the force that holds the atom together? The coincidence seems that they occur more often with things that are in closer proximity. That said you have the whole 6 degrees of separation thing happening so everything is possible.
loved your post
A note to the heart transplant:
There have been observations that with organ donors (mainly the heart) that they person who receives the heart tends to experience certain tendencies that the old owner experienced. It’s like the old owner is still connected to the heart or the heart controls some things about that person, and it gets transferred over to the new owner.
I think this is just currently speculation and not a whole lot of research has been done yet. But it’s still pretty interesting.
Good post
good post
Thank you for commenting on my page. You have some very interesting theories here. Maybe everything is connected in some way. It is true that everything in the universe is built upon the same molecular system which could account for these coincidences.
well, i don’t know what a coincidence is. let’s just sit around and stick our thumbs up our butts some more.
i have a tendency to think that coincidences are essentially meaningless and simply, well, coincidences. but really, there must be some underlying force that allows for the equilibrium of the universe and the interconnectedness of all things. that “force” must somehow play a role in the inexplicable.
but what’s responsible -if anything- for strange occurrences?
positive and negative energy? god? actions and reactions? i really don’t know.
some things are just too complex for us to grasp fully…
good post. nice site.
-sarah
I’ve come to believe its all connected…and ‘coincidence’ is only one word to describe the connection. But I only believe that through life experience…I didn’t start out believing that.
A quick story as an example…I traveled Europe after graduating college…and out of boredom while sitting in an ancient church building asked God for a kiss from a beautiful girl…what happened and was it a coincidence? Find out the details
Paul
i tend to believe so. but i call it randomness. its weird because i thought its happen a couple time. but the interesting kind though. bleh randomness. i read the first two lines and thought.. hmmm =)
there is an idea that people are drawn closer together simply by thinking about one another.
even if your friend merely crossed your mind at some millisecond during the day, you may have unknowingly been beckoning her to meet you there.
I know it sounds far fetched but I believe it.
the other day, I started thinking of my grandma out of nowhere. She used to cross my mind from time to time but the other day I thought of her all day and felt really heavy-hearted. I thought about sending her gifts and flowers. I got an e-mail from my dad yesterday that she had undergone surgery and is in recovery.
who is to say if this world or this universe is an intricate design or some random bouncing tapestry of endless strings.
sometimes beautiful, sometimes tragic…are we searching for a meaning to life by choosing a life of meaning?
ya never know. and that’s okay.
good job with the post you!
I mad respect your graffiti skills.
wacom tablets are the ish. wish I could afford one. T.T
seriously…
that was a fascinating entry.
this is the kind of topic I just love to think about and hear all these opinions on. Thanks for writing the entry, it’s great.
i believe in coincidence..
very confusing/ interesting post. i don’t think i have an answer, i will be reading this over and over again. i loved i heart huckabees, even though it got me really depressed at some points.
one more thing i forgot to add, something happened to me before: that i sent a friend a parcel, and i happened to be at work 5 mins or so prior to the parcel reaching him. however i suddenly felt sick and asked to go home, and on the way out i called him, and then my phone ran out of money, and in the 2-3 mins i took to get money into my phone again, he received the parcel. it really freaked me out, seeing as how we were 8 hours apart and all of that too. i don’t know why i had to say that, but… too much of a coincidence really.
Probably one of my favorite literary quotes, from The Unbearable Lightness of Being:
“Chance and chance alone has a message for us. Everything that occurs out of necessity, everything expected, repeated day in and day out, is mute. Only chance can speak to us. We read its message much as gypsies read the images made by coffee grounds at the bottom of a cup.
Necessity knows no magic formulae – they are all left to chance. If a love is to be unforgettable, fortuities must immediately start fluttering down to it like birds to Francis of Assisi’s shoulders.”
hey, that’s a freaking great post!
I never comment on these, but I really liked this one.
I don’t know, I guess… I would like to believe everything matters, but sometimes it seems like nothing does.
It really depends on my mood, haha. If all is going well, everything matters. If nothing is going well, then nothing matters.
At the moment it’s one of those “nothing matters” times. =P
Everything matters.
I believe in coincidences because it’s God’s way of saying to you in a “surprise” kinda way that He’s working out beautiful things for you.
“its a small world” is a classic example of this. my example is asians in orange county. we’re fed the same information, run on the same “trends,” and develop the same way (for the most part) because our parents were all immigrants to this country. so i will see my boy from orange county at my favorite club in hollywood. why? because i just will. but the chance of running into him is smaller than not running into him because of different variants. i will also run into my other boy in long beach. why? because i will. that part is scientific, but the connectivity – that can be broken down into science too, if not by atoms and neurons than by human behavior and its tendencies. what’s real goofy is running into my friend’s friend at the airport in atlanta. or a guy knew in the pool hall at lax, twice. but it’s all in the big scale of people. i love it.
beautiful entry
first featured post that has interested me in a while.. i love the script as well.. is that your handwriting and you scanned it or something? its so cute
xoinicedence, isn’t that a chain of events that appear extra interesting or unexpected to us?
I read something that says “there is no such thing as coincidence; that’s God telling you He is master of everything.”
cool post. I <3 I heart huckabees and Hitch Hiker’s guide to the Galaxy. I don’t believe in actually coincidences- I think there is purpose behind those things- just take the disapearing bees for example. Something so small could make such a huge impact on the world! They say humans will begin to die out with in 10 yrs of the bee’s extinction which is guessed to being caused from Global warming.
You put your thoughts in writing really well.
It’s hard for me to do that.
Congrats on being featured.
i like the idea of karma, and of fate. i feel too young to make a definite decision on my beliefs but i do like to sit and ponder. there’s always that link between science and then something else.. something more. personally i like to think there is something more, that things are connected.
xx
I agree that nothing is coincidence, but a sixth sense reaction to our environment based on impulses of trauma to molecules in the area, all of which impending on our central unconsciousness, sounds possible, but not likely. What you say may be true, as it says in the Holy Bible, Romans 8:28-29, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
ALL things work TOGETHER, for GOOD. So there is a purpose. It’s not ALL things work TOGETHER, but they have a purpose, it’s for GOOD. Humanity was not an accident, though they’ll try to tell you so. Evolution, of instance, states that a tiny blob of matter made a Big Bang, and POOF, here we were. Coincidence they call it, because they have no other alternative. Because they refuse to believe in a God.
Best wishes,
Marlin Spike
cute site
Wow, girl! You get into some philosophical thought! I used to, too. But, since I’ve been redeemed by the blood of The Lamb, my life is becoming more about using every moment to grow my relationship with Christ and do as much as I can for others. But, to answer your question: Even though the name “coincidence” is given by us mortals (out of our need to “possess” and name everything in the universe…even things we’re not designed to understand!) to what appear to be random occurances; in my opinion, if you believe in God – the Creator of EVERYTHING – there are NO coincidences, because everything in the universe has been planned or allowed to occur (as a lesson for us) by Him, out of His great love for us.
Ther4, there are things, seen and unseen (at the molecular level and beyond our limited vision into space) that will always be beyond our comprehension. And, why? Because we’re not God!
Great blog…I believe everything happens for a reason.
everything is connected. i agree.
i also think that everything happens for a reason. we just won’t know the reason until much later.
good post.
“No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine own were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.”
-John Donne
I, too, believe we are truly connected as you and John Donne has finely expressed.
Funny, I knew this girl back when I was in middle school but we were never close. Since back then, we always met at the airports randomly. And it’s not just at the same airport! There was one time in Singapore, Indonesia, and Los Angeles’ LAX, and sometimes more than once at those airports. All these have been happening for the past 8 years! Coincidence? I guess not.
Very interesting post
I try not to believe to much in fate an all that. It creates an illusion of something which probably never existed, we just convince ourselves something did because of those little coincidences which bolster the illusion. Reading this, however, reminded me of the reasons why I thought believing in those things were possible. Bleh….
oh…and I hardly hung out with her in between our random rendezvous at the airport. Hardly contact each other at all!
Everything is always connected. I’ve been privileged to see the loom of life. I know things look very random some times, but they’re not.
@wu_li - Yes! Question no so much “what’s going on here?” but: “what we gonna do with it?” If we’re connected, why not communicate? Nicely put, thank you.
We are all living proof that everything matters and everything is connected. Because if we people didn’t matter, nothing would matter.
great post. i do always wonder why. mostly when it involves a guy.. anyways XD
this made me think of the movie waking life.
Wow, nice post. I love the idea of every one and every thing being connected.
P.S. the answer to life, the universe, and everything? 42 [great book and movie]
You said the hear transplant patient married the donors wife and then died the same way as the donor? Maybe it had somethin’ to do with the woman…
Yes, there is a “higher being,” if you will, He does exist, He is God. And if you don’t believe that, I would really like to know why.
My evolutionist friend calls a blind woman being prayed over and immediately recieving healing a “coincidence,” he also refers to a mute person speaking after being prayed for as a “coincidence”. I disagree. I was raised in a Church and with only 15 years, nearly 16, under my belt, I have seen lots of things most people haven’t. That would be demons cast out of children, mute people speaking,… you know, miracles. Or in the case of the Atheist, “coincidences”.
Very deep post.
Congrats on getting featured.
-S.
Hey Kate! this is an interesting topic..
i’ll visit your xanga often when i get a chance so keep those entrys coming girly!
So heres what I think…
I think there are such things as coincidences, small things..
Like see your ex after months and you two are wearing the same colours..
No meaning.. just happens to happen.
I do agree that everythings connected. But small, simple things, are just coincidence
Super Esbah
i believe theres a reason and its all connected too
tc x
sometimes its just nice to think we have been brought together by the winds of fate. it doesnt matter how u know each other. serendipity maybe? but i believe there’s a reason for everything =)
no such thing as coincidences
merely a lack of understanding to have called the latter, a coincidence
there is a reason, an explanation, behind everything in the world, and the further you look, the closer you come to the truth.
i didn’t quite understand i heart huckabees the first time i watched it. maybe i should watch it a second time.
but i do ponder on these things lots of times – perhaps too many times. sometimes it seems thinking too much, trying too hard to explain things is not good. perhaps there are things which are meant to be unexplainable / unexplained so that we can continue to awe the strange / amazing things which happen every day. but it does feel good to believe that things are connected and aren’t that totally random…
I do believe everything is connected at times…
interesting post! =)
Maybe they both killed themselves because of the wife…
In all seriousness, I think the world is smaller than we realize, and that people are very much alike. Not to be cynical, but it’s unlikely we’re all snowflakes, and so bits of our lives overlap or form parallels, and those can be called coincidences. Another of Adam’s books (Dirk Gently and the Holistic Detective Agency) has made me very much doubt in the interconnectedness of all things.
Cute site
i agree with most of what you say! congratz on being featured!
i love your mini handwriting blurbs. and your graffiti. I LOVE GRAFFITING TOO
I love posts that make me think. All I have to say is I’m going to have a good night tonight thinking about this.. I like the way you write.
I’ve been meaning to watch I Heart Huckabees for ageesss. I always see the preview for it on my Garden State DVD and have never watched it. I think I will now.
Lovely post.
Most of the time, it all feels like God is pranking His creation. Sometimes it’s just a reminder that we are not as far removed from others as we are apt to believe.
I think that what we consciously witness in this world is like viewing an ocean from the surface. There is so much more taking place in its depths, things we do not see and can mainly only try to haphazardly interpret, a hidden labyrinth of relationships, meanings, and causes. The famous psychologist Carl Jung wrote a book called Synchronicity attempting to address some of the phenomena you mention here.
cmcm~
one of the many questions that keep me up at night… the movie Serendipity helped me believe that everything happens for a reason (even though I may not understand why). Awesome post.
Great post! I really enjoyed reading it. Sometimes I find it hard to guess if something was “fate” or coincidence.
It’s all about some off.the.wall combination of what God wants & what man ends up doing. So far I can’t even try to pretend to know any more about it.
This brings to mind a question, though: if “everything’s connected,” what do you call the fact that my dad & maternal grandpa have the same 1st name?
I like how you think! I’m Subscribing now!
I think you might find this interesting…Yesterday in my ethics class we talked about the man who married the donor wife and then killed himself in the same way as the donor. My name is also Katie and I too have a deep interest in what coincidences are and if they have any sort of meaning or none at all… Coincidence?!
I think you might find this interesting…Yesterday in my ethics class we talked about the man who married the donor wife and then killed himself in the same way as the donor. My name is also Katie and I too have a deep interest in what coincidences are and if they have any sort of meaning or none at all… Coincidence?! Perhaps it is up to each individual to decide if it (coincidences)matters or not– Maybe there is a special reason why you pay particular attention to coincidences? I tend to think there must be some sort of intricate plan, because the way life orchestrates itself is too beautiful of a symphony to be a mistake. In other words there is something that connects us all, and maybe one of our lifetime purposes is to discover the interconnected quality, whatever it may be.
No one can know whether or not things happen for a reason. You’d have to know the meaning of life in order to know that. (And “You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.” –Albert Camus)
I don’t really think things happen by coincidence — rather that everything is predestined but we just need to make the choices to lead us to a certain result.
Although, if I say that, it kind of feels like I’m a hamster in a plastic wheel… O_O
DO U WANT 2 BE FRIENDS I LOVE UR SITE
loved this post. very thought-provoking. in fact, my brain is hurting trying to wrap my mind around it… haha
and congrats on the featuredness of your post. =)
I BELIVE THAT COINDENCES ARE REAL ONCE I MET MY BEST FRIND KIM IN KINDERGARTEN I KNEW SHE WAS GOING 2 BE MY BEST FRIEND. SO THEN IN SECOND GRADE I HAD MY FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY WITH FRIENDS INSTEAD OF FAMILY SO SHE WAS TALKING 2 MY DAD AND AFTER A WHILE THE FIGURED OUT THAT THEY WERE HIGH SCHOOL TEAMMATES THEY WERE ON THE SAME WRESTLING TEAM NOW IF THAT ISINT A COINDENCE THEN I DONT KNOW WHT IS
Good question!! I think there are genuine connections that can’t just be dismissed as “chance”–your examples of thinking of someone just before they call and seeing your professor over and over in the grocery store support a view of interconnectivity. I have experienced this myself and wondered…why?? The challenge with any worldview is combining the search for meaning with reason. I’ve found my answers (and I still have questions!) in Christianity — For a good book about life’s questions, I recommend James Sire’s, “The Universe Next Door.”
You have a very interesting perspective on life, it’s meaning, and ‘coincidences’. It all seems rather complex doesn’t it? You also have a very nice background.
i actually wanted to comment on the doner situation. i have read about cases where someone needed a kidney (or some other organ) and once they receive the transplant, things start to change. for example, they start to crave foods they have never liked, or they have a strong urge to do something they would never do before they had the trasnplant. its like, they start doing things the person that the kidney came from used to do. maybe that can explain why the person needing the heart fell in love with and married the donors widow, and why he killed himself the same way the donor did.
as for the rest of the post….. WOW. definitely got me thinking. i think that everything happens for a reason. i wish i could explain why certain things happen, but eventually, there comes a time when you realize why something had to happen for things to fall into place the way they should, make sense?
and yes, i believe that everything matters, no matter how minute it may be.
I know. My friend sent me the link on Facebook because we watched Across the Universe together.
It is just too adorable. Oh my word.
oh wow . .
thanks for posting , i never thought if coincidences that way!
I believe there is a reason for everything and that nothing is random, although sometimes it may seem out of place.
Wow, great post!
As a scientist, I think coincidences have a lot to do with pheremones and other chemicals released by our bodies as a result of our emotions. These are definitely stimulating when received by someone else. I’m not sure if that makes sense, but great post, anyway!
Everything is a coincidence.
cute layout! of the post, and your backgrounds a beauty. I thought a lot about that myself but you kind of said it already. I know, I only finished reading the words in handwriting.. I don’t know if you covered it but there’s a word in chinese called “yuan/” which is about how some people just have more “connection” and chance to run into each other and do things together. The pulls of the world! Just like today I kinda gotta run, but I wish I could talk more about it too.
To me, many “coincidences” are the evidence that there is a God and he takes very good care of me. I call them God engineered curcumstances. They happen all the time and never cease to freak me out. Great post.
Hmmm…what *IS* coincidence indeed. Wow…deep thoughts, a wonderful thing to contemplate on and u sure irked my thoughts now. Now whether this will spark a blog entry for moi, I have no idea, but thanks for opening up my mind to thoughts of it. -LoL-
wat about tailored coincidence? LOL!
Regardless what, I see everything as fate whether you work for it or not.
Beautiful post =)
I believe everything happens for a reason
I think it’s pretty simple:
Universe created, structured, and directed along a general line of activity by God. All truly positive activity comes from this source, who lives in extra-time (experiences past, present, and future as one item for himself) and sees the whole thing’s outcome from the beginning.
There is also One enemy, who has much less power (has to look over on God’s paper to ‘read’ the future), and who tries to de-rail the revealed future, so that God will be ‘forced’ to acknowledge him as equal or superior (laughable – this enemy is insane to think that he’s equal to a self-powered, self-existant, extra-time being with the power to build/rebuild ANYTHING the way he wants just by TALKING).
Anyway, coincidences happen because:
1. They have the same beginning source, God, for the same reason: God wants to show his love and be loved.
2. They are overseen by himself and his followers.
3. They are influenced by the same anti-source, and his followers to one reason: destroy whatever God loves, like a terrorist band.
4. People, themselves partake of bits and pieces of both groups.
Sidenote: I generally believe there is more of the latter than the former, no matter what positive views may say: children don’t have to be taught to lie, cheat or steal, (etc.) but they DO have to be taught to tell the truth when it’s boring or dangerous, to live honestly, and that someone else’s stuff may be off limits. Such things don’t come ‘naturally’, although children notice such things as fairness more than adults who have dealt with imperfect life for a long time.
Anyway, the point is:
The universe was created by one being toward his personal goals of increasing the amount of beings to love and be love him. This same universe is being influenced by the rabid hate of (essentially) one being who wants to be top dog, and thinks that destruction of all good will get him the Executive CEO position over reality. All other creatures/beings are following in the footsteps of one or the other at ALL times as they think, act, or even dream.
The really cool thing is that the Originator allowed all the diversity, including the ability to hate him, in the original creation, knowing that it would cost his son’s life to keep things going toward the expected (and foreseen) positive outcome.
There’s much more in depth than that, but as your point was why things like ‘coincidences’ happen, and I’ve come to a counter-point: Why aren’t we all robotic to the point of being boring? It would sure be easier on a loving God to have all of creation love one another and himself just because that’s the way he made it. No pain allowed, no suffering, no death…
No choice.
Love seems to allow the choice to hate the lover.
Choose to love the Lover who loves you!
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
There is none other name in heaven and earth by which we must be saved.
With love from another deep (if channelized thinker),
PPl gotta think about negative coincidences as well…like when u’ve worked really hard to finish ur work in time, u have to go to a store to print it cuz u don’t have a printer at home n so u gotta save it in a cd n then the CD goes all messy n doesn’t let u save ur file…n u have to hand in ur project in 40 min (exactly the time it gets u to get to ur meeting w the supervisor!)
Another one: u dress up tidy everyday but on a rough sunday when ur feeling down, u decide to wear da first thing in ur closet, nothing matches, there’s a zipper that has fallen off, a pocket that is ripped n ur shoes are very dirty…n THIS IS -THE DAY- that u cross some of ur friends in the street n they stop u to chat…all the other days when u looked ok, u never met anyone in ur way!!
One more: When ur bf asks smth very specific that u knew could be asked but that u never thought he was gonna ask, n he insists 2 know it…is that on purpose? is that meant to happen so that u think about not being too predictive & not so honest? in other words, is that coincidence a path to make u repent n search truth?!
Done…..
hey, girl, can i know more about u?
i just to make a frd. it’s a conincidence that i found u in random search.
Yep, everything and everyone is connected. It’s all about Karma.
I think that everything happens for a reason, even if we don’t know what that reason is. Maybe you and your professor always seeing each other may just be “somethings” way of saying laugh or whatever. My boyfriend always calls me when I’m eating. It never fails. And the printer at work will only work when I tell people to walk to the door and come back.
Not trying to be disrespectful, but i laugh at all the long posts that coincidences are an act of God.
“In God we trust” – are all Americans this religious? so much faith… could you spare some for me?
Excellent post! I’d give you 2 kudos if I could