Coincidence

COINCIDENCE
“Just Another Day, So We Thought”
by Dennis Ginoza

It was just another day of travel. We had been on the road for some five weeks and were on our way home to California. Our trip took us to Colorado, and Iowa for my wife Sylvia’s class reunion, and visits with friends in Chicago, Cincinnati area, St. Louis, and back in Iowa (Oskaloosa, Des Moines, Clear Lake). Now we were homeward bound in our Toyota van.

It was a long day on the road, some ten hours, and we arrived at North Platte, Nebraska for a night of rest. We knew very little about North Platte other than, it was a city along highway 80, in the middle of farm lands along a river.

As we travel, the question always arises, “Where are we going for dinner?” We were told, the Quality Inn had a restaurant so we thought we’d check it out. Approaching the restaurant doors, which were closed, we quickly judged, we’d look for another restaurant. Ruby Tuesday popped into our minds. We so enjoyed dinner with friends in Hamilton, Ohio, Ruby Tuesday it was; just a walk across the parking lot.

“Where would like to sit?” asked the hostess. We chose a booth with comfortable seats, across from the window tables. As we took our seats, we had no idea that the evening was going to be an experience of surprise, an encounter that was lined with a silver thread called, coincidence.

Webster defines “coincidence” as “the occurrence of events that happens at the same time but seem to have some connection.” It also defines “coincide” as “to correspond in nature, character, or function.” What happened that evening, July 6, also was a serendipity.

Serendipity is defined by Webster as, “the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for.”

Now at the table, we decided on what we would order. Sylvia chose an item from the menu, I selected the salad bar. In the next booth were two women having their meal, two friends who often dined out together. Their conversation, after we sat down, took a turn in time. The one woman said to the other, “I think I know those folks.”

I had gotten up to get to the salad bar. Unbeknown to us, much curiosity filled the other booth. The woman saw my Spring Training, San Diego Padres T-shirt, “They’re from San Diego!” the added clue. The woman came up to Sylvia (I was getting my salad), “I think I know you. Is your husband a minister?” “Yes,” replied Sylvia. “Hi! I’m Janie, your husband married us--Carl and me!” The moment turned into joy, lost friends finding each other in a most unsuspecting place, Ruby Tuesday in North Platte, Nebraska, hundreds of miles from California.

Yes, in February of 1993, in Chino California, Janie Beth and Carl were married in Carl’s family home, as with weddings, a time full of joy, hope, and love. Carl worked as a security guard at the Pomona Public Library and met Sylvia who worked as a reference librarian. I was studying at the School of Theology at Claremont and also found friendship with Carl and then, with Janie.

Our contact with Carl and Janie faded some in time. They had moved to Seattle where they lived for several years. Carl’s untimely death brought a sad moment of change in Janie’s life as it did for her family, for many friends and for us. Our Christmas letters kept us linked together in the bond of friendship, a bond, neither time nor geography can sever. This, one learns, when hearts are bound by love. Janie remembers: she told me, you said in the in the marriage ceremony, “Let love, love, love, love bind you together.” Eighteen years have gone by and love still is the binding force.

Coincidence? Yes, on the one hand. On the other, hidden somewhere is a divine lesson, old friends will once again share the common path of life, of love, of surprise. Carl Jung offers the term, “collective convergence,” when people appear in the same time and space. Some things we cannot explain, but like fruits on a tree, they are to be shared, they are given as a gift.

North Platte was just a city along highway 80, a blink on the fast track. But that evening, it was a city that came to life for us. Janie said, “After dinner, I want you to follow me to my home so we can visit over a glass of cold lemonade, and talk.” That sounded like a real treat. (We visited with her good friend Carla who marveled over this encounter).

Janie is a delight, full of enthusiasm, and shares an excitement about life. She gave us a tour of North Platte. Here is the home of Buffalo Bill who helped settle the wild west, a memorial park built in his memory. We saw his home from which he could see the movement of the Indians (Native Americans) in their early prairie battles. North Platte was the route of the Intercontinental Railroad, the Central Pacific (from California) and the Union Pacific (building from Omaha), the tracks which joined to complete a transportation system that helped change America. We drove by the museum with a high tower where the golden spike is kept, the symbol of completion of railway in the 1860’s.

The evening renewed our friendship with a great joy and wonder. We met Janie’s mother, a superb musician who played selections on her organ and her piano, to our benefit. We traveled back in time to the wedding, how our families are doing, and anyting and everything. We were old, lost friends who found each other in a most unsuspecting place!

Coincidence? Accident? I am learning, some things are meant to be, in the course of divine time.