In flies the scarab beetle

erendipity is all about making fortunate discoveries by accident.

As a young girl I recall my first encounter with serendipity, and have affectionately termed it a "Magic Box" incident and used this example to explain how serendipity works many times since. I'd received a toy magic box as a child; a gift I enjoyed immensely for years until I tired of the tricks and placed it on the top shelf of my wardrobe. It remained there for years, in fact, I’d long since forgotten about it. One day, a number of years later, I found myself quite bored. Everyone had gone to the cinema and I’d opted not to. I couldn’t find anything stimulating to entertain myself, so I ultimately decided to clean out my wardrobe to pass the time. I reached onto the top shelf to retrieve an empty box in which to place some of the discarded items, and as I drew it off the top shelf, the magic box came tumbling down too. As it landed on the floor, the inner tray containing the trick items flipped out of the box to reveal yet a second tray of tricks located underneath. What a surprise! I was unaware that the box was constructed with two trays. I was delighted! Yes, the magic box falling from the shelf was indeed serendipity.

Serendipity is also often referred to as coincidence, happenstance, fate or even some form of synchronicity. You might ask, “what’s synchronicity?” Swiss psychologist, Carl Jung, was first to use this term, “synchronicity”, when he described it as "temporally coincident occurrences of acausal events." It’s distinguished from simple coincidence or happenstance in that it is a meaningful coincidence demonstrating that there is an underlying dynamic that is manifest through events or circumstances. Some have since challenged Jung’s synchronicity, by suggesting that it is merely Apophenia ~ a subconscious yet deliberate human perception assigning connection and meaning to entirely unrelated phenomena precipitated by the need to rationalise. Nonetheless, one has to wonder if this could be the case, when considering the classic example of synchronicity offered by Jung himself. As he reported, he was treating a patient who related a dream about a scarab beetle, an icon that the Ancient Egyptians used to symbolize “rebirth”. While the woman is describing this insect’s role in her dream, Jung approaches the window, and upon opening it, none other than a golden yellow scarab beetle flies in.

Happenstance? Coincidence? Or perhaps something more?
In the same vein, there was no answer to my January email to Doug. In fact, there wasn’t an answer in February 2005 either. I was disappointed. I thought I’d been more than gentle in my explanation and my apologies while I’d assured him that although disappointed to learn that the interest in each other had obviously not been mutual, I cherished the friendship we’d developed. Meanwhile, I continued to read the various immigration boards to see if I could determine anything from Doug’s participation there that would explain his lack of response. While lurking on Visa Journey, another member that claimed he was a fellow biologist and I had exchanged a number of private messages back and forth. For the most part our conversations were oriented around some of the clear flaming activities by other members and lack of appropriate board moderation. He was a long time member and was showing me the ropes and although I had joined hoping to learn more about Doug, someone else was approaching me. I was uneasy getting to know anyone after this most recent incident, and offered little in the way of personal information, yet I was polite. Then, out of the blue, one day while responding to a private message from this member, a private message appeared on the screen, from yet another Visa Journey member.

By March, both members were sporadically exchanging private messages with me. By March I’d learn that both, yes, both were Doug.

Happenstance? Serendipity? Or Synchronicity?