Most people have a story to tell about a remarkable coincidence that in some instances changed the course of their lives. These uncanny occurrences have been variously interpreted as evidence of divine influence, fate, or the collective unconscious. Less common are explanations that explore the social situations and personal preoccupations of the individuals who place the most weight on coincidences. Drawing on a variety of coincidence stories, renowned anthropologist Michael Jackson builds a case for seeing them as allegories of separation and loss--revealing the hope of repairing sundered lives, reconnecting estranged friends, reuniting distant kin, closing the gap between people and their gods, and achieving a sense of emotional and social connectedness with others in a fragmented world. Table of Contents: Preface Time to Time A World in a Grain of Sand Lost and Found Synchronicity and Suffering The Other Portion Correspondences Ships That Pass in the Night Chance Meeting Coincidence and Theodicy Amazing Grace About Time March 15, 2019 Person to Person Confluences Love It So Happened That . . . Contrived Coincidences The Double Chinese Boxes Autumn Leaves Magdalene of the Black Rose All the Birds of the Air Place to Place The Relativity of Our Viewpoints As Time Goes By Pieces of Music Strangers on a Train The Lost Child In the Nature of Things Il Ritorno in Patria Affective Coincidences Coincidence and Fate The Question of Verisimilitude Coda Acknowledgments Notes Index About the Author: Michael Jackson is an anthropologist, poet, and fiction writer. He teaches at Harvard Divinity School, and his most recent books include Critique of Identity Thinking, T he Paper Nautilus, and The Work of Art. |