Have you ever experienced something good or valuable
that you did not expect or plan for? Maybe you found a book that inspired you,
met a new friend, discovered a new hobby, or got a lucky break. If so, you have
experienced serendipity.
As for me, watching Serendipity, the 2001
romantic comedy movie, was a valuable experience a long time ago which I did
not expect to have enkindled in me a soft spot for the word itself – serendipity.
Coined by Horace Walpole in 1754, based on a Persian
fairy tale called The Three Princes of Serendip, serendipity is
“the gift of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for” according to
Mr. Webster. It can happen in various domains and contexts, such as medicine,
business, and religion, to name a few.
One of the most famous examples is the discovery of
penicillin by Alexander Fleming in 1928. He was a bacteriologist who was
studying staphylococci, a type of bacteria that causes infections. One day, he
noticed that a mold had grown on one of his Petri dishes and that the
mold had killed some of the bacteria around it. He identified the mold as Penicillin
notatum and named the substance that it produces -- penicillin. He realized
that penicillin could be used as an antibiotic to treat infections and diseases
caused by bacteria. The discovery revolutionized the field of medicine and
saved millions of lives.
Serendipity can take place as well in business where
many inventions and products were made by accidents and sagacity. One of the
most popular examples is the invention by Spencer Silver and Art Fry in 1970.
Silver was a chemist who worked for 3M, a company that produces various products,
such as tapes, adhesives, and abrasives. He was trying to create a strong
adhesive, but he accidentally created a weak one that could be easily removed
and reused. He called it a “low-tack, pressure-sensitive adhesive.” He tried to
find a practical use for it but failed.
Hoping to find a way to market the weak adhesive,
Silver shared it with his 3M colleagues. Among them was Fry, an engineer, and a
choir singer, who happened to have a problem with his hymnbook’s bookmarks. He
used pieces of paper to mark the pages of his hymnbook which often fell out. He
recalled Silver’s adhesive and thought it could be used to make a better
bookmark.
He teamed up with Silver and they developed and marketed the now popular and profitable product known today as Post-it Note.
In the same way, serendipity can come down to faith.
One of the most remarkable examples is the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls by
a Bedouin shepherd in 1947. Looking for a lost goat near the Dead Sea, he threw
a stone into a cave. He heard a pottery jar breaking and went to look at it. He
found several jars that contained ancient manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible and
other religious texts.
Not only were the scrolls the oldest and most complete
copies of the Hebrew Bible, but they also contained other writings that shed
light on the origins and diversity of Judaism and Christianity.
“Grace” according to M. Scott Peck, author of The
Road Less Traveled, is serendipity’s synonym. “In my primary identity as a
scientist, I want and like proof,” he says. “But throughout my twenties and
thirties and as I continue to mature, I’ve become more and more impressed by
the frequency of statistically highly improbable events. In their very
improbability, I gradually began to see the fingerprints of God.” Peck asserts,
“It is a major thesis of mine that grace… is available to everyone. But while
some take advantage of it, others do not.”
The latest headline-grabbing stories of bar
topnotchers and passers called to mind, many years ago, my similar pursuit to
join the elite group of the engineering board exam topnotchers. On the last day
of the board exam, before taking the final subject – Structural Engineering and
Construction – I figured out my performance so far had a high probability of
landing me in the Top 10. All of a sudden, I caught sight of the design problem
-- it made my blood run cold.
The night before the exam, after 3 months of rigid
review and a month of refresher, I tried, for the last time, to thumb through
my reviewer. I came across with design problem that presented two types of
solutions: One is called Castigliano’s Theorem, and the other is the “moment
distribution method.” For one reason or the other, I picked out Castigliano’s
Theorem, dived into it, and gained mastery in it, inside out, while tossing
aside the “moment distribution method.” The last problem on the last subject on
the last day -- required the “moment distribution method” solution – I had turned
a deaf ear to it
“I had turned a deaf ear to it.” I purposely played on
such expression to give prominence to Peck’s words below:
“Whenever something happens that is beyond
coincidence, the chances are great that the hand of God is at work. But does
God actually ever directly speak to us or reveal Himself to us? The answer is
yes. The most common way is through [God’s] 'still, small voice.'”
This Bible verse is always a good reminder: “If today you hear his voice harden not your hearts.” (Hebrew 3:15)
Let me bring down curtain to my article with Taylor
Swift’s sketch to celebrate her being the Time’s 2023 Person of the Year.
Feature writer Sam Lansky narrates, “Swift has told me a story about
redemption, about rising and falling only to rise again – a hero’s journey. I
do not say to her, in our conversation, that it did not always look that way
from the outside.”
I’ve weighed up in the same way on what I thought
about her journey. How the Time’s cover story raises the curtain and how it
draws to a close, as shown below, puts such a journey into words – a dash of serendipity.
“She was 17, she says, and she had booked the biggest
opportunity of her life so far – a highly coveted slot opening for country
superstar Kenny Chesney on tour. 'This was going to change my career,' she
remembers. 'I was so excited.' But a couple of weeks later, Swift arrived home
to find her mother Andrea sitting on the front steps of their house. 'She was
weeping,' Swift says. 'Her head was in her hands as if there had been a family
emergency.' Through sobs, Andrea told her daughter that Cheney’s tour had been
sponsored by a beer company. Taylor was too young to join. 'I was devastated,' Swift says.
“But some months later, at Swift’s 18th
birthday party, she saw Chesney’s promoter. He handed her a card from Chesney’s
that read, as Swift recalls, 'I’m sorry that you couldn’t come on the tour, so
I wanted to make it up to you.' With a note was a check. 'It was for more money
than I’d ever seen in my life,' Swift says. 'I was able to pay my band bonuses.
I was able to pay for my tour buses. I was able to fuel my dreams.'”
Serendipity? Joshua T. Katz, a senior fellow at the American
Enterprise Institute writes, “So different in effect grace and serendipity
are, but they go well together semantically: positive phenomena that happen just
like that, WITHOUT EFFORT and WITHOUT MERIT.” [Underscoring mine]
Drawing to a close, the Time’s story wraps up with Paul
McCartney’s serendipitous note (Beatles' Blackbird's song lyrics) hanging in Swift’s bathroom: “Take these broken wings and
learn to fly.”
Taylor Swift writes all of her own music and has written a lot of songs for other artists. She wrote Willow in less than 10 minutes -- an inkling of the hallmark of her mind.
Putting the finishing touches to this article Louis Pasteur’s serendipitous formulation of “luck favoring the prepared mind,” isn’t Taylor Swift’s life journey dashed with serendipity?
Happy Weekend Everyone!
Content put together in collaboration with Microsoft
Bing AI-powered co-pilot
Head photo courtesy of Time
Video clips courtesy of YouTube
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