Recently, I ran across a little piece on serendipity that I liked. It was written a few years ago by Pagan Kennedy, who is someone I respect and follow. She entitled her little article, “How to Cultivate the Art of Serendipity.” I have written before about serendipity, because I very much like the idea and the experience of serendipity. However, I have not done any research on the idea, so I only had gut feelings about what I thought about it and how I thought it happened. I must admit, I don’t think I ever considered that serendipity could be cultivated---that I might somehow enhance my chances it would happen.
Kennedy opened the article with an intriguing quotation. She asked, “Do some people have a special talent for serendipity?” She tells a couple stories about experiences of serendipity and then concludes, “A surprising number of the conveniences of modern life were invented when someone stumbled upon a discovery or capitalized on an accident…” She then sharped her question. She “began to wonder whether we can train ourselves to be more serendipitous?” Her follow up question made me smile: “How do we cultivate the art of finding what we’re not seeking?” I love that question!
Kennedy then follows the lead of researcher, University of Missouri Sandra Erdelez, who divided folks into three groups. The first group of people she labelled “non-encounterers.” This group is most unlikely to experience serendipity. They spend too much time in the mundane---often following the rules and job description. They have little exposure to surprise. The second group is called “occasional encounterers.” This is the people who “now and then” experience serendipity. For this group serendipity is haphazard and seldom happens. The final group she labels “super-encounterers.” Clearly, this is the hot-shot group! They tend to find serendipity “wherever they looked.”
Interestingly, Erdelez said a super-encounterer becomes one partly because “you believe you are one.” She adds, “it helps to assume that you possess special powers of perception, like an invisible set of antennas, that will lead you to clues.” Given these three groups, I would probably place myself in the middle group---the occasional ecounterers. It fascinates me that I could opt to become a member of the super group. I am interested enough to follow up on this.
Kennedy does not go too much further except to offer the idea that we need to study it more. We might gather super encounterers to see what makes them apparently so apt at serendipity. I would add that one thing I believe helps us move into this third group is hanging out with folks who are not like us. Of course, this makes it a bit like becoming creative or innovative. But I assume there is a link between the cultivation of serendipity and innovation.
Rather than go in that direction, however, I want to turn to another direction, namely, spirituality. It is easy for me to speculate that many folks find their experience of God or the Spirit to be like serendipity. Of course, there may be ways of connecting with the Spirit through discipline and particular spiritual practices. But most of us also know that experience of the breakthrough of the Spirit into our lives when we were not exactly expecting it. For me those are always good times. I think serendipity is always good.
Serendipity is not the same thing as luck. I don’t think my experience of God’s Spirit is a matter of being lucky. I assume God wants to come to and come into every living person. And sometimes I think God breaks into our experience without knocking. But if it is always good, then I say come on in! And I can somehow cultivate this experience of serendipity, then I am all in.
Personally, I like the idea of availability. If I am available to the Spirit, then serendipity is more likely to come my way. As I ponder availability, I think there are a couple components. To be available, we have to be present. We cannot be thinking about the past or the future. It is a here and now experience. In addition, we have to be open. Availability is being present and open. As such, I am ready to welcome that which comes to me---often in softer, quieter ways that dramatic and bombastic. The Spirit does not always come with trumpet calls!
In my own case, I have to be willing to give up control. I know that is an issue for many folks. We live our lives attempting to control almost everything. Not to be in control feels risky. And indeed it is. I suspect not to be in control---to be available---risks serendipity. Surely, serendipity has to do with perception. Perception shapes how we experience the world. For example, if I am an atheist, then nothing serendipitous could be spiritual.
I understand how important perception is, but I want to avoid making undue judgments about what I see. Even more so, I don’t want to be judgmental. I want to remember that I experience the world, but I don’t make the world. Whatever I think about God and how God works does not thereby determine who God is and how God works. God retains the freedom to be and to act in the ways God chooses.
And when God chooses me---as God will choose all of us---then welcome serendipity.
Those of us who have read theology or, perhaps, those who are people of faith and are old enough might well recognize this title as a reminder of the late Jewish philosopher and theologian, Martin Buber. I remember reading Buber’s book, I and Thou , when I was in college in the 1960s. It was already a famous book by then. I am not sure I fully understood it, but that would not be the last time I read it. It has been a while since I looked at the book. Buber came up in a conversation with a friend who asked if I had seen the recent article by David Brooks? I had not seen it, but when I was told about it, I knew I would quickly locate and read that piece. I very much like what Brooks decides to write about and what he contributes to societal conversation. I wish more people read him and took him seriously. Brooks’ article focused on the 2016 contentious election. He provocatively suggests, “Read Buber, Not the Polls!” I think Brooks puts
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