coincidence.
there are the jokes, the humming of the twilight zone music, the jinxings, etc., etc., but i don't suppose i've ever really had something bizarre happen that wasn't meant to happen.

i think that certain things happen for a reason. if i were to get a fortune cookie that said, "take chances, things will work out for themselves," i would say something like, "what a freaking coincidence!" and get all spooky. perhaps i'd even hum the twilight zone music. but mere spooky coincidences have no value on their own. for me to take something from that experience, from the "chance" that i was in the right chinese place at the right time, and the right food prep person put the right fortune cookie in the right bag of food at the right time, and handed that bag of rightness to me, i'd have to take it to a level more serious than coincidence.

i'm not saying that god has the time or detail-minded approach to act out elaborate fortune cookie placements. but i am saying that divine intervention is involved. if i were to open that fortune cookie, at the end of my meal, while i was contemplating ordering some cream cheese wontons, i'd think that the "taking chances" referred to the wontons, and the "things will work out for themselves" referred to the empty calories and garlic breath. but if that fortune made it's way in my hands while i was contemplating the biggest career and lifestyle change of my life thus far, the cream cheese wontons wouldn't even be on the radar screen.

the same chances, the same bizarre happenings can easily mean either absolutely nothing or the "sign" or "nudge" you were looking for. if you're at a crossroads, coincidence will have an effect on you. if you're not, maybe it'll make you buy those wontons, and that's about it.

and no, i didn't get that fortune yet, but i did have some delicious and garlic-y cream cheese wontons yesterday.

this one's for the cubicle dweller.