Serendipity

I am always amazed with all the “unknowns” out there that we, even at this age and time, still haven’t grasp. We may have thought about the possibilities and have the numerous hypothesis on the how’s and why’s of those “unknowns” but still, we don’t have that level of definiteness of knowledge and proof that makes us certain about it as we are of our knowledge that the earth is round today.
I had a recent brush with one example of an “unknown” which had intrigue me the past month. It was on the distinct feeling that there is some force in the universe out there that is influenced by our minds. And that maybe we could actually make things happen to us by our thoughts. I of course know that this is true at the conscious level, but to have it happening at the subconscious level is another thing. A good example of this is serendipity, which is defined as the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else entirely. It is finding something that is useful to you without you looking for it. (Taking note that if one finds something he/she is actually looking for, it no longer falls into this description.)

I was nearly falling asleep on my bed but was trying to do a quick sketch of a picture in my mind before I doze off and risk forgetting it when I wake up in the morning. It was a picture of a lot of umbrellas (top view), and the monotony of these umbrellas is broken by a single woman looking up at an angle towards the side of the viewer (nearly but not entirely looking at the viewer). See pencil sketch image below. I couldn’t get the right angle tilt of the woman’s head and facial expression and after several tries, had decided to drop it off for later when I wasn’t too sleepy.

I forgot to get back to it but after a couple of weeks, while browsing an airline brochure magazine which came in the mail, I was surprised to see a picture of a painting of umbrella tops in the magazine which was very much similar to what I had in mind. See cut off Art today picture below. (And if I had gotten around to painting it, it would have looked similar to it except for the woman’s face glancing back at an angle).

I was much more surprised when on the weekend later, while reading the Sunday magazine which came with the newspaper, I happened to see another photo showing the top of Iraqi Shiite women that had a single woman, looking back up and facing the viewer at an angle. It had exactly the right angle and facial expression that I had in my mind but had trouble reproducing on my sketch. The coincidence of me seeing these two pictures given the image I had in my mind and was trying to put on print was amazing!

Needless to say, thank God for the “unknowns”! Life as we know it would be a rather boring existence without them. No more scientists probing underwater or in space, no more mysteries that spark the imaginations of artists, no more quests for discoveries of unimaginable treasures or valuable truths, no more serendipitous delights such as this example above.. just boring (however definite) facts.