Rebuilding Rob

As WordPress continues to recycle old prompts, I pulled another prompt from The Coffee Monsterz Co to respond to today

What was a coincidence that you noticed?

I’m not sure whether I believe or don’t believe in coincidences, if I’m being honest.

Beating the odds

Sometimes two totally unrelated things just happened to coincide. I’ve dated people who had a birthday at the day before or the day after me. I personally know people who share a birthday with me. I guess one could call that an example of a coincidence. But then, there are only 365 days in a year. Statistically, if you know enough people, you’re bound to meet somebody who shares a birthday with you. Is that a coincidence? Is that just fluky odds? I tend to go with the former.

Leading to a pattern of behavior

For what it’s worth, I don’t think random coincidence just happen. Too often, when one thing happens and it coincides with another thing happening, it usually means that something else, something bigger, is taking place. Something that you personally do not have all the facts to.

An example of

Imagine this scenario: you’re in a relationship. Your partner has to work late on a Friday night but they promised to see you this evening. They end up being out much later than they previously told you. Concerned that something has happened to them, you call them. When you finally make contact with them, they inform you that they need to run a few errands and will be later still.

In my opinion, these are not all just random coincidence. Clearly something else is going on. Perhaps it’s that the person can use some time alone. Perhaps is that the sincerely lost track of time. Or perhaps there’s something more sinister going on, like they’re cheating on you.

Whatever the case is, when we don’t have all the facts, and we see two or three of these things coinciding, we just chalk it up as luck. But most of the time, in my experience, there’s something else going on. Something to which the person waiting at home is not privy. For the record, that scenario I gave may or may not have happened to me.

A leap of faith

Coincidences are a lot like faith. As humans, we tend to believe in the things that we cannot detect with our five senses. Sometimes people will use coincidence to justify their spiritual beliefs. Other people will say that things coinciding it’s just an indication that something else is happening – something to which we simply don’t have all the facts.

The subject of coincidences is is a deep one; one that philosophers has been tackling for years. I know that there are people who are far more educated for more eloquent than I who have spoken on this matter and, but I hope that this wasn’t too difficult to follow

Thanks for stopping by Rebuilding Rob. Be sure to like, 👍 comment and subscribe to my blog below. It’s greatly appreciated! Also, feel free to follow me on social media as well! Check out my most recent posts as well as some earlier, related posts:

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• Rob’s Retro Movie Review: This is Spinal Tap (1984) – The Movie That Scaled to Eleven
• A Death in the Family (And My Disposable Income): My Life in Comics
• The Supporting Cast: Navigating the Eras of Male Friendship
• Life is What Happens: A Look Back at My Non-Existent 2025 Vision

The article “Co-inky-dinks” first appeared in Rebuilding Rob.