spoons

I realize this is the third blog post with a utensil as the title...which is purely coincidence and, coincidentally, frames the topic at hand:

at least 3-10 times per day (and often in my dreams as well, so tack on another 2-5) I encounter coincidences that, were they woven into a fantasy novel, would seem absurdly *convenient*. Out of the air magically falls a miracle and just like that, a crisis is averted. Money grows on trees and suddenly I have more than I imagine. I live in a Dickens novel, I often say. Not only because we (Charlie and I) have certain commonalities with regard to taxes, prison, and arbitrary confinement, but also because the aptly-named personae in my play and neatly braided coincidences permeate the literary fancies of daily life. I believe this is probably the case for most people, if they stopped to notice.

Many times I've had the idea and intention to start collecting these cosmic events like beercaps in jar--little memories of ghostly butterflies fluttering in a glass, reminding me of the seamless whimsy that punctuates the hours. Then I think, "So many have passed unrecorded, the vault is quite empty, why begin archiving little mysteries and miracles now?"

It's like the card game "spoons" where three or more players pass the cards around in a circle, each player holding four randomly distributed cards in his or her hands and doing his or her damnedest to corral four of a kind before stealthily snatching up a spoon from the center of the table. Much like musical chairs, the spoon supply is always enough for all but one, slow, unobservant player who either fails to lasso four of a kind first or fails to notice when the spoons are snatched by fellow players. Collecting the four of a kind depends on deciding (early on) which card to collect. Usually, if one begins with more than one kind in hand, that is the best card to collect. Yet, as we spoons players have discovered, there are rounds where you'll choose your card, and within seconds, you'll pass up three or even four of a kind of a different card. And so you think, should I have started collecting X card a long time ago? Is it too late to start collecting a different one now? Does my neighbor HAVE the card I originally sought to collect? And then, you notice that the spoons have been snatched, and the game is up. The point is, does winning depend on choosing the right card from the outset and then randomly being favored by the deck or does it depend on perseverence and conviction: you chose the jack and you stick with the jack despite the two or three aces that you willingly passed along?

So you never know what's coming down the pipe, but you either stick with the plan or get ready to roll if something better comes along...and in terms of collecting coincidences...the debate is whether to begin collecting them now (now that so many have been caught and released) or to keep letting them pass by because they aren't what I'm after anyhow? is it better to be the first to gather the lot or sufficient to avoid being caught without a spoon?