What are the chances?
I'm not well versed in chaos theory. I just have this vague knowledge that one small action can leave a wide array of consequences in its wake. These consequences tend to be wholly unforeseeable at the time of the original action, so hindsight often bestows upon them an aura of the miraculous. I can look back at my own life and see how any small difference would have led me in entirely different directions. If I had taken the reporting job at the local newspaper rather than opting for a higher-paying industrial job in a different city… If I had played soccer in high school rather than being in the band… If I had answered that advertisement and sent a headshot to the producers of Walker Texas Ranger who were looking for an average-height teenage boy…. When I see the twists and turns my life has taken over 32 years, I find it amazing that I ended up in this chair in my attic, typing on my iMac words that will be read by people in five countries (that I know of) on a blog dedicated to celebrating my union with one particular woman out of about three billion on this planet. The mind boggles.
And that's only taking into account the past 32 years, and only my life. My sister recently forwarded me an e-mail and photograph sent to her by our Uncle Bob. The photo was taken some time (I'm guessing) in the 1920s. It is a picture of my grandfather in the oil fields of west Texas. Here's what Uncle Bob said about it:
This is a photo of your grandfather (man on the left) and two other men who were drilling an oil well [Click the image below to see it in full. Trust me, it's pretty cool. –Curt]. It was taken before he and your grandmother were married. Story goes that there was a slow down in drilling oil wells. The big boss came to dad and told him the work would be shut down, but that he needed a man to look over the oil company's interest. Dad asked him if another particular man was to be laid off to which his boss said, "Yes." Dad said that since the other man had a wife and kids to let him have that job and he would go home (back to East Texas because they were in West Texas) and get married. So that is what happened. And YOU are part of the result of that decision!
So one small decision made it possible for my grandparents to be married at exactly the right time to have five children, the fifth of which was a total, unexpected accident of a baby boy about nine years (I think) after the birth of my Uncle Bob. That accidental baby grew up to marry a woman at exactly the right time to conceive two children—my sister and me. I'm sometimes amazed at the circuitous route my life has taken, but there are thousands of years of circuitous history leading up to that. So what are the chances that I would end up right here, right now, doing what I'm doing? I think a mathematician would say the probability is exactly one, since that's what happened. A theologian would probably agree, since God is in control. Me? I'm just glad to be here, and I thank God that my grandfather was such a kind and thoughtful man.
