In class today, I was pretty uncomfortable when people were sharing "coincidences", - events in their lives that seemed to happen by chance in an amazing way, much like the way events in "The Truth and Legend of Lily Martindale" unfolded. Onno left us with the thought that perhaps, as his wife theorized, events such as meeting someone personally connected to you in a populated city or taking the flight right before the one that crashes occur because of the laws of statistics. At the beginning of the semester, I would joke that I felt safe here because killers escaped from a prison through the Adirondack Park earlier this year and a fire occurred at the Mountain House seven years ago, so chances were in our favor that nothing so bad would happen to us during our stay. Yet, reading and interviewing people about topics related to the power of energy and the purpose of souls has made me think deeply about what coincidental events really mean and what causes them.
I believe in something until it is proven, not the other way around, and the concept of coincidences has been totally punctured for me. I cringe inside when people use the word "coincidence", because I so desperately want to shout out that it isn't real; everything that happens has meaning and happens for a reason, even if we cannot perceive it. As we grow up, we are taught to analyze everything that happens in our life by looking through a filter of our limited ability to discern logic and reason. We call ourselves the most intelligent species on the planet, and our worlds shatter when we cannot figure out solutions to our own problems. When we look back at our lives and are in awe of how if I had not done "x" at "x" time then "x" would never have happened, we are compelled to go past the beauty or tragedy of the harmonious sequence of events to try to find reason for it. In the case of a negative event, such as not being able to get a loved one to the hospital in time, this can lead to guilt and regret that can burden us for our whole lives, or in the case of a positive event, such as meeting your lifelong lover halfway across the world, it can lead to putting too much faith in something beyond ourselves and neglecting to be accountable for our actions. So, how do we strike a balance between attributing everything to logical human acts and attributing everything to a force beyond ourselves? It was not until the mid 20th century when Carl Jung introduced the term "synchronicity" to explain paranormal events. Jung defines synchronicity as: "the coming together of inner and outer events in a way that cannot be explained by cause and effect and that is meaningful to the observer." Synchronicity happens all the time, but we are aware of it more so when we are in an open and perceptive mental state, which is likely why children notice events that defy cause-and-effect.
Synchronicities in "Lily Martindale" were somewhat convincing to me, but the prevalence of them throughout the book should have been explained, since the average reader would find them jarring. Our society is so critical of a-causal events that it is very risky for writers to include too many of such, since they seem like an easy way to resolve complex plots. I have no doubt that a character such as Lily Martindale would have produced a daughter that listens to her heart rather than her mind, a daughter that thinks about what she wants more than worrying about her life as an adopted child. Yet, Shartle neglected to delve into the character qualities of Jenny, among various other characters who experienced striking "coincidences", so the way Jenny found Jim and Lily so haphazardly seemed exaggerated. Shartle could have used her story as an opportunity to me fall in love with her a life alone in a Great Camp and believe in fairy tales again, but instead she left me questioning the magic of so many fairy tales I've encountered. There was a line that Shartle needed to cross to make Lily's story successful to a population that is grounded in finding a rational explanation for events, and she just didn't deliver. The truth behind Lily's "legend"-- the fact that she is an ordinary human afflicted by loss -- was just too mundane considering the novel's build-up. The more I think about it, it was disheartening for me to read a book that reinforced the ultimate successful return of a woman of privilege who has isolated herself from a system she is sick of and sacrificed everyday luxuries to be a caretaker of her home, since separation, abstinence, and submission are not the ways to spiritual growth, as people are often culturally taught. In the end, the love Lily regained was mere luck, and to me, this is such a superficial phenomenon.
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