If you’re into blogs you definitely have some favourites that you read regularly, I mean that’s what it’s all about right? Well, one that I read (admittedly as well as many other people) and have written about a couple times on Blogspoke previously is the ‘Dilbert Blog‘. Check out ‘Blog Comments pages become crazy conversations’ and ‘Blog ‘coolness’ is born from content.’ Well, today I read his post entitled, ‘Feeling Better’ which is basically about how he didn’t post on his blog yesterday because of sickness, and now of course he’s…you guessed it. In this unusual post, rather than write his usual witty commentary about the human race which he lovingly coined ‘Moist robots’, he asks readers, ‘What’s the strangest coincidence that has ever happened to you?’ I started to read the hundreds of comments and found that I couldn’t stop. We humanoids regularly read literature, magazines, newspapers, now blogs…but who would have ever known that a blog’s ‘Comments’ section could become a place to be tangled up in story?
A while ago I wrote an article entitled, ‘Do you believe in random coincidence? Or, do you think that there is some destiny involved when things magically ‘come together’? The shortened name was called, ‘The Universal Connection’. Read it here: ‘The Universal Connection‘. I believe coincidences or destined connections are an excellent topic of interest, as do the Dilbert Blog readers who told their stories in the ‘Comments’ section of the ‘Feeling Better’ article. Here are some of my favourite tales from the already 184 stories related on the subject of ‘strangest coincidence.’ Sorry if the post is long but I really think these short memories have the effect of causing one to stop and think about the connectedness of the Universe…However, of course you may disagree.
1. ‘A few weeks ago I was on a field trip for a fire ecology course, chatting with a woman I hadn’t seen since we were bunkmates, four years ago. We had both worked for the Forest Service and shared a cabin with an exchange student from Taiwan who had disappeared near the end of our field season. The Taiwanese woman had gone camping, for only the second time in her life, alone, and she hadn’t come back in time for the end-of-the-season party. I notified the Parks Service before I had to leave and they sent out a search party.
Besides the surprise of meeting a bunkmate in class after no contact for four years, the strange coincidence involved the man sitting on the log next to us. He interjected with the name of the Taiwanese woman. It turned out that he was working for the Parks Service that summer – and had rescued our lost cabin-mate.
She had wandered far off the trail on a deer path, in the fog, fallen down a steep slope, broken her arm and shredded her side. But that’s another story…’
2. ‘After getting off the bus on the way home from school, my buddy and I came upon a small grass fire. A sheriff’s deputy was on scene and had already called for the fire dept but they had not yet arrived. The deputy had just emptied his squad car’s tiny fire extinguisher when a sedan pulled up behind him. The driver hopped out, called the deputy over, opened his trunk and handed all of us fire extinguishers. He had a trunk full of them because he was in fact a fire extinguisher salesman! It’s been 20 years and recalling that event still makes me smile.’
3. ‘I’ve lived in Alaska for 25 years. My best friend died while climbing Mount Makalu in Nepal. Being executor of his estate, I received several calls from people who knew him. (He had friends worldwide)
A guy called from Puyallup, Washington one night, just to chat about our mutual friend. Meanwhile, I had just THAT DAY discovered the name (possibly) of my missing daughter on a girl’s track team in Puyallup, Washington. (Her mother had taken her away 18 years ago)
I mentioned this coincidence to this fellow from Puyallup. In seconds, he was looking through his daughter’s yearbook. A few minutes later he had scanned and emailed her picture to me. There was no question – she is my daughter. Search over.’
4. ‘One that happened to actor Anthony Hopkins:
From ‘A View From Elsewhere‘ (John Montgomery’s Weblog’)
The British actor Anthony Hopkins [who shot to fame as Hannibal Lector] was delighted to hear that he had landed a leading role in a film based on the book ‘The Girl From Petrovka’ by George Feifer. A few days after signing the contract, Hopkins traveled to London to buy a copy of the book. He tried several bookshops, but there wasn’t one to be had. Waiting at Leicester Square underground for his train home, he noticed a book apparently discarded on a bench. Incredibly, it was ‘The Girl From Petrovka’. That itself would have been coincidence enough but in fact it was merely the beginning of an extraordinary chain of events. Two years later, in the middle of filming in Vienna, Hopkins was visited by George Feifer, the author. Feifer mentioned that he did not have a copy of his own book. He had lent the last one – containing his own annotations – to a friend who had lost it somewhere in London. With mounting astonishment, Hopkins handed Feifer the book he had found. ‘Is this the one?’ he asked, ‘with the notes scribbled in the margins?’ It was the same book.”’
5. ‘When I was nine, my family was driving from Michigan to Oklahoma to visit the grandparents for Christmas. We had bought a flannel plaid shirt with elbow patches for my Grandpa, but we left it at home. We realized this too late, we were already hours away from home and couldn’t turn around. About the time we crossed into Oklahoma, we saw a wrapped present in the middle of the road. My dad was always dreaming of that bag of money that would miraculously fall into his hands, so we pulled over and picked it up. Inside it was a flannel plaid shirt in my Grandfather’s size. It was good that he got a present from us that year; he died about two months later. My grandma has a picture of him in that shirt from that Christmas that she keeps on display. Now, is that a coincidence or a Christmas miracle?’
6. ‘In WW2 my father’s ship was torpedoed and sunk. The submarine surfaced. As the submarine men were about to fire on the life rafts, they thought they saw a plane and the submarine dived. My father was on the raft for two weeks and finally got picked up.
40 years later at work in a factory on the other side of the world he was talking with his German co-worker of many years.
He was on that submarine.’
*This next blog comment actually caused me to feel quite emotional as it obviously did for another reader who ‘replied’ to it in his or her own comment. Blog comments causing emotional reactions and intimate human connections? You go figure…
7. ‘My dad was taken to hospital a few days ago and diagnosed as terminal. He has 10 days left at best. The cactus plant he had for over 40 years just started to wilt and die.’
8. The reply: ‘please, find
1. tuvshintugs_burhan_bumbiin_oron
This is song about one’s love for his father and mother and his homeland.
I so feel your pain, I lost my mom 9 years ago, I am with you, we all are.’
There’s a nice little quote by the famous science-fiction/humor author Douglas Adams slipped into one of the comments: ‘There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.’
Jesse S. Somer wonders if it’s simply coincidence that he’s blogged about coincidence.
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micontent 
The Blogosphere is a mob you don’t side with
Posted in Blogging Help, Commenting on Blogs, Creating an internet identity, Digital Reading and Writing, Expressing ourselves on the Internet, Global Internet Community, Life opinions, MiContent ideas and information, Psychologies of humanity, tagged Copywriter, Crap blogs, Finding good blogs, Jesse S. Somer, Melbourne, MiContent, Mob mentality, Overstimulation, People like you, Surrey Hills, Too many blogs, Too much to read online on May 4, 2007| Leave a Comment »
Do we really need to hear the voices of every single human being? If everyone gets a blog, is that such a good thing? These are a couple questions that have come up in discussion in recent times on this blog, and I feel it’s about time we get to the bottom of it. If everybody’s spending their time writing a blog, will there be anyone left to read them? Why do you want to write or read blogs anyway? If you’re writing for readers or comments/interaction, will your writing become obsolete and lost in a sea of human voices crying out to be heard? What kind of voices are we going to hear?
Going deeper, how many people do you meet that you don’t really relate to, or even get along with? The answer is ‘a lot’! Why do you think most people only have a small group of human beings they call their closest friends, all others automatically thrown into categories like housemates, colleagues, team mates, acquaintances, and associates? We don’t like all people. Well, it’s not that we don’t like all people – but we don’t understand or comprehend many of the behaviours that others exhibit. As soon as someone else shows a certain trait that grates against our belief system, we decide that we’d rather not spend as much time being around them. So, what about blogging? Does this mean the Internet is going to become an endless quagmire of people we don’t relate to getting clicked on and visited when we do Google searches on any specific topic?
Everyone’s a writer now. Great! Smell my sarcasm. How many books are already at the bookstore? Do we really need more writers spilling their guts into the pot of human communication? When you go to a bookstore how often do you walk around looking at authors you’ve never heard of, or writers who write about subjects you’ve no interest in at all? All the time, and sometimes you walk out of that shop with nothing. You’ve found nothing worth reading…in a bookstore! So what happens when we get every brain on the planet trying to tell us a story? Chaos! Can you imagine looking for blogs about motorcycles for instance? How many freaking blogs are you going to have to go through to get the type of blog you like to read? By the time you get there, you’ve got no energy left to read…that is of course if you ever get there.
You wanted to know about old German motorcycle engine cylinders, all you found were pictures of scantily-clad women on Harley Davidson choppers with photos of mean-looking tattoo beast-men staring at you through your monitor, daring you to come near their bike or woman. It all sounds like a pain in the buttocks to me. I thought blogging would give a voice to the minorities and individuals of the world. It sounds like if they ever did finally get a blog, no one would be able to find it for the forest of ‘Average Joe’ blogs pervading the Blogosphere. I don’t want to have to read about people’s everyday lives…you might?
In the days before writing, most wisdom was passed down orally by elders who had lived long lives, and because they were sensible they held high positions in the tribe. Younger people didn’t bother speaking much, especially at important ceremonies – they wouldn’t know what to say anyway! Those were stories worth hearing. How many stories expressed by people we don’t really relate with and who don’t really have much knowledge about anything are we going to have to wade through to get through to the worthy information? Sounds like a world with too many bloggers, too many writers, too many voices and not enough readers or time to relate with anyone.
Just as a dog isn’t allowed to crap in the park, humans shouldn’t be allowed to talk bullshit in the Blogosphere.
Jesse S. Somer isn’t jive talkin’. He’s tellin’ it the way it is.
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