Unco Rectitude

In 1636 Roger Williams, an eleven generation deep ancestor of mine, was kicked out of Massachusetts.  Mind you, from the sound of it he was more than ready to leave – he did not see eye to eye with the administration.  He went off and founded Providence, Rhode Island. [Note - insert HERE a jocular reference linking Williams' radicalism and Rhode Island Red chickens].

Providence, of course, means originally looking ahead, foresight, and is linked to provide, provisions.  This in addition to the concept of Divine Providence.  So, in the context of this composition my connection with Roger Williams is, shall we say, providential.

We spoke of luck and excessively leafed out trefoils and all that.   As far as the clover thing is concerned, the presence of the sport in the lawn is fortuitous, but beyond that luck is not involved in my finding it.  Not that when I find one I have done anything clover [yes, you have every right to groan at that one, I meant you to groan].  I happen to have a very strong talent for spotting patterns.  I simply used to scan the greenery in a relaxed way, and suddenly I would be conscious of an anomalous geometry in the grass.  Focus in on it, stoop, pluck – one more for the collection.

See, I knew there was a perfectly natural explanation.  Nothing woowoo about it.

Same thing for the Adventure of the Unpurloined Letter, another case from our files.  Here are the facts.  One day, it might be long ages ago or it might be yesterday [but that is just my rotten memory and time sense], something transpired that, had I but known it, was destined to be a turning point in my life.  I decided I wanted to answer a letter that I had received about ten months previously.

Possibly you have not seen my desk.  It is not a trackless waste, it is a tangled thicket, PUZZLE – find fifteen animals hidden in the picture.  It is not quite Jamila’s living room, but it for sure is not my grandmother’s kitchen.  The desk where I sit writing this is moderately jumbled and disorganized, okay?

Wait for it – in those days, I had TWO desks in my office.  Think TWO bags full of last year’s Christmas tree lights.

So I decide to answer this letter which has been SOMEWHERE on ONE of my desks for ten months.  Got the picture?  So I go into the office, walk over to the left hand desk [on the North wall, at least I am not disoriented].  I move the piece of paper sitting on top of one of the stacks.  Hey presto, voila – there staring up at me is the letter, poised to impact my existence in incalculable ways.

So what is that? Luck?  Destiny? Maybe you think it is my pattern sense again?  But why would you believe there was any kind of pattern on that desk?

I am not about to believe that my pattern sense came into it.  I could be fine with the Destiny diagnosis; in fact, given the way it fits into other events from that time I see Destiny as the most probable solution  But I’m a Skeptic, I am, and I can not claim that Destiny is the only acceptable interpretation.  This is MY desk [well, one of my desks] in MY office, and in the ten months since the letter came in I have sat at that desk rummaging for this paper or that book or any working pen at least six times a week.  So maybe every third time I’m searching my glance skims past the letter, and just maybe my subconscious files its location each time.  Could be when I want the letter my subconscious phones me up and leaves an anonymous tip telling me where to start looking.

Is that woowoo?  Well, the subconscious, if it exists [and I have to say I am not aware of mine], is a pretty strange thing, but they claim it is not magical or supernatural.  So I am going to split my vote between Destiny and the Subconscious.  Can’t prove it one way or the other.

But then there is Providence – the special Providence that reigns in the Shed.  Focus your mind on my desktop as described.  Got it?  Now blow that up to a metal-walled shed about 50 by 100 feet.  With the same level of clutter.  Mind-boggling.

Here is the really mind-boggling part of it.  For the past not quite twenty years, I have been involved in a variety of construction and reconstruction projects in the ongoing process that is Chez Mubakkar.  At several points in each project I have needed exactly ten screws of a very specific type and size, or precisely six brackets, or five electric outlets, or two circuit breakers, or four seven foot 2×3s, or whatever.

Be specific, Sharif.  Monday of this week I needed eight wooden shelf brackets of a particular pattern and specific dimensions.  I had located [in three repositories around the place] seven such brackets.  Time to visit the lumber yard?  No way.  I hardly ever need to do that for anything smaller than a 2×4 stud.

I walked out to the shed – my 50×100 Sharif desktop shed.  I started to toss some junk in a container.  Yes, there is certifiable junk in the shed, and yes, I am trying to tidy it, just as I have always tried to keep my desktop tidy.  Seriously.  So I pick up a scrap of plastic sheeting full of trash – and underneath, brand new in original plastic packaging, is bracket number eight, the right size and shape.

Too true.  For going on twenty years, any time I need between one and two dozen exemplars of some small size building supply, I have found it in that shed.  Usually, if I need three screws, I could not find four to save my life – but I always find three, not two.

I call it Providence.  It is not MY foresight – the shed is full of stuff left by former owners and by various relatives.  I never bought any of the type of circuit breaker I needed, for example.  It is NOT my pattern recognition, nor my subconscious.  They surely help me spot where the seven cup hooks are, but they cannot control how many of what I will need, or match it so precisely to the contents of the shed.

Somebody is looking ahead – those shelf brackets joined the force at least six years ago – and providing what I am going to need and hiding it in the shed for me to find in the fullness of time.  Very providential.