Coincidences-

A coincidence is defined as a sequence of events that although accidental seems to have been planned or arranged. As I have said over and over again, I believe that everything happens for a reason. I generally know that something is meant to happen when I find myself saying repeatedly "wow, now that was a coincidence." Keep in mind though, I don't believe the opposite of that statement or that everything that coincidentally occurs is meant to happen. I do tend to find myself in strings of coincidences though. Take APK, the most recent of these situations.

I coincidentally was set to meet up with my elusive cousin after my first Shabbat Cluster. Coincidentally, APK and my cousin went to high school together and had not seen one another in a good 6 years. I had just introduced my cousin to Friendster about a week earlier and urged him to join. After both my cousin and I requested APK as our friend on the same day, I received an e-mail from APK with the subject line "Coincidence."

Coincidentally, APK was a member of the Phillips Collection and invited me to come with him to the museum on a Sunday. He had no knowledge that I'd ever studied art. Coincidentally, I was put in my setting on the first time we hung out. Also coincidentally, APK went on exchange during college with BG. Before about 6 months ago, whatever BG thought of someone would have greatly influenced how I felt about them. Recent activities, however, had allowed me to fight with BG and not take anything he said seriously. Coincidentally, even though BG and APK now get a long just fine, I met APK when I couldn't have cared less what BG thought about him.

At the first happy hour APK took me to, he introduced me to "the epicenter of Jewish social culture in DC" and a good friend of his. Coincidentally, she and I went on a trip to Israel together in 1996. Also coincidentally, I bumped into SC, a friend of BGs who I thought was really cool, and got to hang out with she and her friends. Coincidentally, she works about a block from my office.

Skip ahead to recent coincidences. Coincidentally, APK's two closest guy friends in DC are both from the same town in Massachusetts as several of my closest guy friends from college. Degas is one of my favorite artists. Coincidentally, the opening for which APK invited me was for a Degas exhibit. My coworker's husband is a lawyer. This I've known since I started. I was telling APK two weekends ago that I go to lunch with my boss and coworkers at least twice a week. He asked if this was tough with work talk coming up and such. Which it's not. It's truly quite nice. Coincidentally, the next Monday at lunch we got to talking about APK. My coworker's husband is the type of lawyer APK wants to be at a firm APK was interested in looking into. Coincidentally, he's also the recruiter for the firm and able to give the exact advice about choosing a school on which APK needs.

So coincidentally, things just seem to be making perfect sense. There are more, but for the sake of keeping this post out of novel form, I've abridged. Needless to say, I doubt it's all accidental.