I encountered one of life's little ironies this morning on my way to work - that's an 18 mile drive from the village in which I live into the main town on my home island. Having left the house at 8 a.m., I wasn't in any hurry so was doing a fairly steady 60 m.p.h. along the road. There were no cars in front and none behind, which is nice after having lived amidst the chaos and confusion of various big city sprawls. Then I spotted a blue car in the rear-view mirror, some way back but approaching fast. Within no time, it had caught up with me and started to pass me on the climb up to the brow of a hill where the view of any oncoming cars was obscured.
I noticed that it was a young woman who was driving this blue car - a Fiat, I think - and though to myself "that's not a very sensible way to overtake, especially going that fast." She was doing at least 80 when she passed me. "If you're not careful," I muttered, "you're going to crash." As the blue car disappeared over the brow of first one hill and then the next, I thought nothing more about it.
Anyway, I made it into town and as I approached a roundabout, what did I see? The same blue car that had passed me sitting with it's nose hard up against the tail end of a red van. Sure enough, she had crashed and was, I presume, busy exchanging insurance details with the driver of the red van - a rather bemused looking middle-aged man. I couldn't help but wonder then about the prophetic nature of my earlier muttering. And those times when you're thinking about someone you haven't spoken to in a long time when the phone rings and you just know it's that same person on the line.
I guess those are the times that you wonder if there's more to life than we see. Is there some mysterious power that moves us? Or are we really just random voyagers on a sea of chance?
I think it's time for a coffee!!!