Coincidence?? I Think Not....

So I was watching this show last night about astounding coincidences, or coinky-dinks, as I like to call them. One of the stories was about this woman who had officially given up on relationships, having trod a long, rocky road filled with bitterness and pain. (This after reaching the advanced old age of 30.) She finally asked God to either send her a husband, or give her peace of mind about being alone for the rest of her life.

Hell, I've been haranguing God to do SOMETHING bout my love life for most of the past decade. Apparently, my Heavenly Homey has been letting each of those fervent pleas go straight to voicemail. Still, I ain't mad at 'im.

Anyhoo, to try and condense her somewhat convoluted story, one day, against her better judgement, Ms. Single Forever attended one last Singles' event, where she sat next to a guy with the "biggest, most beautiful brown eyes ever." (Ain't it lovely how romance makes you forget stuff like the crud that collects in the corner of his dark-cirled, bloodshot orbs each morning, or how he rolls them whenever you ask him to take out the trash???)

Ooops--that was just an involuntary sidebar from one of my many alter egos, Ms. Bitter von Barren.

Back to the story. By the time they finished chatting, Ms. Single Forever and
Brown Eyes realized they were both attending the same wedding in a few weeks...her cousin was marrying his cousin! Of course they had a magical time at the nuptials, which she related to her elderly uncle afterwards. The uncle asked, "Does your new friend have an uncle named Moe?" Why, yes, yes he does, she replied.

Turns out Ms. Single Forever's uncle and Brown Eyes' uncle came over on the same boat from Italy 50 years earlier! They'd even been best friends for a while, but lost contact. Of course, Brown Eyes and Ms. Single Forever married, had a child, and the two uncles were reunited at the wedding where they didn't get drunk and embarrass themselves on the dance floor.

That last part was the fairy tale.

Seriously, once I got my blood glucose levels back under control, I was actually touched by this story, because it beautifully illustrates just how awesome the whole coincidence phenomenon is....and why some people prefer to believe in Fate instead. I mean, how can you NOT think those two people were destined to connect, with so many inexplicable factors having aligned themselves long before they met?

As I've said before, I used to believe in destiny and soulmates and that kinda stuff, but I have the sneaking suspicion that my Divine Right Partner was tragically caught in the crossfire of a crack deal gone sour a good many years back. I try to leave open a window of possibility, and I certainly won't turn him away if by some chance he survived the hail of bullets with more than minimal brainwave activity. But hey, he better get here before my boobs start settling around my ankles.

There's another point to this coinky-dink post. Last Friday, I got a call from a guy named George Jones who said he'd read my Daily Nation article about Obama's victory and wanted to meet me. He's a professor at USIU, this local university funded primarily by,(surprise!) the US government. George had this kinda nasal New Yawk accent, so I figured he was an American. He said USIU holds Black History Month celebrations each February, and he hoped to talk me into participating next year.

I don't know why I was surprised to learn that George is African American when we met this morning. But I suppose he's heard that as often as I have through the years. Probably more, since I'd guess he's in his early 70's. He's lived in 7 African countries, and traveled through 35, in his decades of US foreign service work.

Here's the rub of this ramble. George said my article had caught his eye because he's the 10th of 10 children, and one of his daughters was born the same year as me. His father worked in a coal mine; my father might as well have been a coal miner, what with all the time he spent chucking those black rocks into our clunky old furnaces.

But for the coincidental coup de grace, just when I had decided to boycott Turkey Day this year, because I have to work, and sometimes it's hard to feel thankful when you're all alone, and it would have been a great opportunity to nurse my inner Scrooge with a few snorts of Glenfiddich while officially launching my annual Holiday Humbug routine, my new "Cousin George" invited me over to have Thanksgiving dinner with his family and friends on Thursday.

Coincidence?? I think not....