Is It Luck or Is It Serendipity?

Post by Enchanted Seashells, Confessions of a Tugboat Captain's Wife

On a romantic evening in front of the fire with a couple snifters of Courvoisier my tugboat man and I have discussed this at length.

We’ve determined that our paths must have crossed years before we were introduced to each other.

In the 1980s he captained a charter vessel in our local harbor--tours of the bay, dinner cruises; that kind of thing. 

In between going out to sea for four to six months, he’d come back to SoCal for a break and to surf-and worked locally.

My mom and I went on a cruise during the period that he worked there. 

Since there were only two captains, and the time of day we were there was during his (remembered) shift, it's highly likely that we spoke--or made eye contact. As captain, he always greets and counts the passengers while he takes the boarding passes.

Our ships DID, most likely, PASS in the night (day). 

What would have happened if we had talked? I was married with a little boy--the timing was absolutely not right. 

Did we each hold on to a momentary glance or imprint on our subconscious so that our path to romance was pre-determined?

Why did I become employed at a cruise line when I don’t even like boats?

I had no idea.

It wasn’t until we had been married for probably ten years or so-- looking through an old photo album--when he saw a pic of my mom and me on “his” boat -- that the subject came up.

That we met in 1991 and felt an instant connection might be interpreted as luck or serendipity.

Which do you think it is?

Serendipity means a "happy accident" or "pleasant surprise"; specifically, the accident of finding something good or useful while not specifically searching for it.
 

Luck or chance is fortune (bad or good) which occurs beyond one's control, without regard to one's will, intention, or desired result. 

A Few Famous Examples of Serendipity

Rubber

Vulcanization of rubber, by Charles Goodyear. He accidentally left a piece of rubber mixture with sulfur on a hot plate, and produced vulcanized rubber.
 

The Microwave Oven

Invented by Percy Spencer. While testing a magnetron for radar sets at Raytheon, he noticed that a peanut candy bar in his pocket had melted when exposed to radar waves.
 

Vaseline 

A chemist working for an old company noticed that the oil-workers would rub a white excretion from the pipes onto scratches. He brought some home and Vaseline Petroleum Jelly was born.

Velcro

A Swiss Engineer out walking was annoyed by burrs. He examined one and found the burr had lots of little hooks. It took him years to develop Velcro which only became popular when used by astronauts in the space program.