this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2024
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This refers to when two or more people encounter each other in completely coincidental fashion. You might notice your old classmate from three countries away is now your waiter in a place you had no reason to expect them in, and you might say "wow, what a small world". You might notice two people who you know from completely different spheres miraculously know each other. You might recognize by chance that your penpal has made a cameo at a venue you're at.

But what was your most profoundly coincidental encounter?

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[โ€“] fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com 15 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The fun sociological thing about this is the likelihoods. If he dated your SO's mother, it means same area, same age, same socioeconomic standing. The chances are greater that you'd run into him, than say a 5 year old from Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

Not trying to take away from how crazy, fun, and unlikely it is, just how it shows that "small world" does in fact exist.

Was talking to a guy about religion. He said he isn't religious but he believes there is "something" that basically works in mysterious ways in people's lives.

To explain, he told the story of when he was at a crossroads in his life, just divorced and unhappy in his job. He wanted to pursue his passion which was metalsmithing but had no shop to work out of.

At a smithing convention, he randomly started talking to this guy who it turns out had a shop and one of their employees just left so they needed someone to fill the spot.

So the guy I was talking to saw that as some kind of pseudo-divine intervention because what are the odds?

And here I'm thinking, you're at a smithing convention, of course you're going to run into people with smithing shops. If he had met the guy while on safari in Africa, then I'd be more impressed.