Not impossible, merely unlikely
Is there a word for when tangentially related events cluster together? For example, when you hear a word for the first time, and then come across it's usage several more times shortly afterwards in unrelated circumstances? Or today's example, when I read through the Metro (a free newspaper distributed at bus and train stations around the country) on the train this morning. Normally I skip over the vacuous letters column, but I glanced at it anyway and discovered a missive from someone enquiring about shoes being left in the middle of the road. They wanted to know what happened to the matching shoes. I told you it was vacuous. Now the shoe-in-the-middle-of-the-road phenomenon is not something I'd encountered before... until I left work and passed by a single white trainer (sneaker for the Americans amongst you) sitting as though neatly placed in the center of the road.
It reminded me of a conversation I read a long time back, which I think was written by Neil Gaiman (possibly in Miracleman), about impossible things. The gist of it was that impossible things don't happen, because by their very nature they're impossible. Until, that is, one of the impossible things really does happen. Because if one truly impossible event occurs, what's to stop others from following?
Of course, a single shoe in the middle of the road is hardly an impossibility, but I like the idea that one happening can cause other related incidents to occur. It may not be how the world works, but it's how I'd like my world to work. Or perhaps it is how my world works and I've just not been paying attention to the rules...
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You know here in America in the 70s, or at least in NYC, there was a trend of tossing up a pair of "trainers" around light poles and cables at intersections. Back then, you could see shoes hanging above at every corner. I think bullies would attack some poor soul and steal their shoes for this sole purpose. NYC was NOT Disneyfied in the 70s. Attacks like this were quite common.
Today however, it's the rare pair you see hanging from telephone poles. I know it is wrong to steal someone shoes and toss them at unreachable heights, but seeing shoes dangling from above always makes me smile.
New Yorkers ARE cruel, aren't they? :)