Serendipity of the Scholars
History is often advanced by chance encounters, a rare luxury in our current condition.
One aspect of life which has been radically curtailed this year has been the chance encounter. When everyone is trying to limit their contact with other people, all kinds of passing interactions have become necessarily brief and often fraught. Now that every activity requires a register or a link to a scheduled online meeting, the opportunities for spontaneous conversation and casual mingling are much reduced.
They will return one day, we must hope. It would be hard to live forever in a world without serendipity and chance meetings: moments of unexpected connection between friends, colleagues, or strangers, which no one would think to plan for, but which can add so much to daily life. Such meetings are not always inconsequential. History has been made by chance encounters: they have sparked revolutions, birthed dynasties, fostered scientific and intellectual progress through the meeting of like minds. The conversation of a brief moment may echo through centuries.
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