Sunday, June 7, 2009

Fortuitous Event Of The Week...

For a while now I have been spending some time on a modest goal - to figure out if there is a unifying theory of the Universe, something that will explain everything. I think I have it. I call it The Unifying Fortuity Theory Of Everything. 

Here is both an example and the thought process that led me to this.

I was out jogging today and was listening to music from the album titled: "Steve Miller and Friends" on which Steve Miller is accompanied by various musicians doing covers of Steve Miller Band songs. A song came on featuring Les Paul and started with a recording made about 50 years ago when Steve Miller was 8 years old and Les Paul (a family friend) says to him - "Steve you sing real good, you should keep singing. Steve someday you are going to go somewhere" ... and then the song begins... "Fly Like an Eagle". Right as the chorus "Fly like an Eagle" begins, a guy on his bike about 50 yards in front of me takes his hands off his handle bars only he doesn't just lift them off - he spreads his arms like wings and shifts balance just a bit to mimic gliding so that he looks like, well like,  he is flying (like an eagle). And I thought - "wow, look at that,  just as the words "fly like an eagle" start this random guy in front me starts pretending he is flying like an eagle. And then I thought - there is no real reason for why things happen - they just do, by fortuity. And this is why that matters...because by far the biggest influencing factor in everyone's life is something they have zero control over - namely, where they are born. If you are born, for example, in Calcutta, you are going to have a very different life than if you are born in the U.S. Talk about the illusion that we control our own destiny. Our destiny is set in motion way before we are even conceived. And then if you think about all the littler accidents that have happened to you that had a huge impact such as friends, family, acceptance, rejection, injury, health, lottery number in the draft, and the thousands of things that we do not control it started to seem to me that fortuity plays a much larger part in the course of life than say, free will or self-determination or individual responsibility and accountability (not that any of those are bad things but if I am right about the way the universe works then I suspect those attitudes and the way we individually adhere to them (or not) are largely fortuitous as well). 

So then I was thinking maybe I will start recording all the fortuitous events that happen to me almost daily (it seems). Call it the fortuitous/accidental event of the week. 

My randomly running into a guy pretending to fly like an eagle on a bicycle while Fly Like An Eagle comes on my headphones event is this week's.

1 comment:

  1. I just found this post so I'm late to comment. However, I wanted to share a synchronicity that happened to me recently that you'll appreciate. Similar to yours and music-related (many of my synchronicities are), I was in the car, "Satisfaction" came on. As I listened, I pulled up to a stop sign and watched a girl cross the street in front of me carrying a shoulder bag that said "Rolling Stones" on it. I sat there and laughed my butt off :)

    ReplyDelete

Followers

 
Add to Technorati Favorites