A Meaningful Coincidence

In light of the last entry, I experienced a very striking instance of a meaningful coincidence. Plasterers are coming tomorrow to do repairs on various rooms. In the afternoon, therefore, Brigitte and I got busy emptying rooms in preparation. This was very heavy work, and after hauling yet another huge bundle of coats from the hallway closet to the attic, I sank down in the upstairs “library”—which we refer to as Europe—and sat on the couch breathing hard. As I recovered, I found my eyes resting on the dark dustcover of a book called House of War. For some reason it had never drawn my attention. I couldn’t place its title or how it got into the house. The book was within reach, so I pried it loose and began to examine it. It was written by James Carroll, subtitled The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power. It turns out that it was a birthday gift in 2006 which, for some reason, I had overlooked. I opened the book to taste its flavor and began to read the Prologue. Reading, it became obvious that I’d never opened this book before. Then, on page xi, the third page of the book, I saw this sentence—and, well, marveled:

The ceremonial groundbreaking for the Building’s construction, on September 11, 1941, took place sixty years, almost to the minute, before American Airlines flight 77 arrowed into the side of the Pentagon that faces Arlington Cemetery.

Now what are the odds of this happening by pure chance on a day like today, after writing the last post in the morning, especially its concluding paragraph?