Today I was reflecting on strange coincidences and the way our lives can take turns we would never expect. This isn’t an original theme, of course, but it caused me to remember an email I received on January 31, 2003. It was from a stranger named Kelli who worked for Student Events at Brandeis and wanted to set up a meeting to talk to me about their web site. I had previously met with the person above her in SE, and he had promised to give me certain information. I sent her back a courteous email saying that I would like to have some information to work with before we met. She said she’d get back to me and forwarded the request to her supervisor, who never responded. The next time I met Kelli was over a year later, at Formal.

What would have happened at that meeting? Probably not too much, but maybe we would have realized we had a common friend in Adam. Maybe I would have realized she was an interesting person. Maybe I would have had some type of meaningful conversation with her before our first one, one year and four months later. Maybe not. But its a fascinating missed connection, seeing as what happened so much later. Could the connection have caused subtle but important changes in my life? Is the fact that we got together later an indication that reality is self-correcting? Or does it mean nothing at all, and its just the sort of coincidence that occurs every day?

I’m pretty sure its the third, and there is no deep meaning here. But it is fascinating none the less. Because think of all the times you’ve passed someone or been introduced and forgot a name or not gone to a class or missed a meeting or turned around just as someone may have been approaching you at an event. Think about that phone call you almost made or that person you just avoided running into on the subway. Now imagine if something else had happened. And maybe somehow you found yourself, oh, I dunno, lets say, in a relationship with that person for the better part of a year. It sort of boggles the mind.

Life is pretty amazing.