Teleology

How does this work? Remember in a previous post I mentioned that various serendipitous circumstances caused me to see the film Across the Universe. Well, here is another example of such strange “chance” – often quite small and insignificant – happenings that I notice in (my) life.

Up until this morning I had no idea what “Appalachia” is – didn’t even know it is a place. While preparing for one of the classes I teach, this word was in the textbook, so I had to look it up. It turns out to be a mountain range in America crossing several states.

Now come tonight; I was reading up on a Christian scholar and philosopher, Clifford Goldstein, and in an interview he says that he likes reading Wallace Stevens poetry. So I thought: let’s read some Stevens. Randomly opening up poems by Stevens, the second poem I read is “Bantams in Pinewood”; it has the following line: “Bristles, and points their Appalachian tangs”. Had I not, purely accidently, looked up what Appalachia is earlier today, I would have had no way of understanding “Appalachian tangs” in this poem – now, a couple of hours later.

How does this happen? Is it purely chance? If so, how often can “chance” happen before it becomes more than coincidence? I am asking this, because such “chance” and “coincidence” happen to me all the time. All the time!

Apart from it happening, my real question is: How does it work? Is it God? If so—to what purpose? It is not as if “Bantams in Pinewood” is a life-changing poem to me.

Image by ThunderChild tm (on Flickr): Creative Commons Image.