Coincidences

We may call them coincidences, or strange accidents, or even (Heaven forbid) the wild imaginings of a confused mind, but I have a suspicion that there may be more to them than meets the eye. Lately, to my increasing chagrin, these incidents have been happening with greater regularity.

Of course you don't know what what I'm talking about. How could you? I have not yet described these remarkable, oh, let's just call them flukes, for want of a better word.

Here's one recent example.

I am reading the newspaper, and my eye happens to fall on a word, an unusual proper name, Gilhooly, in a letter to the editor. A short time later, or sometimes even immediately afterwards, this same unusual name comes to my attention from another source, in an entirely unrelated context, and in reference to a completely different person or thing. In the Gilhooly example, this word showed up on my car radio that very same afternoon. The second Gilhooly appearance had absolutely no connection in any way with the first. There was also no remote possibility that there might have been an inadvertent transference in my memory from one Gilhooly to the other. It was very uncanny.

Or take last Saturday.

I was thinking about making cheese toast for lunch. (I happen to make very good cheese toast — sharp cheddar, Colman's English mustard, a pinch of baking soda, a little flour and sweetened condensed milk, one egg; all these mixed well into a paste and spread thickly on slices of sourdough bread, and then baked for six or seven minutes under the broiler of an oven.)

I got all the ingredients together and began the process. The TV was on. And suddenly it was there on the TV screen — a commercial for California cheddar cheese.

Such strange coincidences have been happening with surprising regularity of late.

Makes one wonder. What can it all mean, assuming there is some meaning?

Maybe I should quit watching Krzysztof Kieślowski movies or reading José Saramago's books?