This morning I was caught in the rain while hiking in the mountains. There wasn’t much I could do other than pretend I was in Seattle and keep right on walking. So I did!  Often, when confronted with the unexpected, a person just has to keep on keeping on.

Julius Caesar said, “No one is so brave that he is not disturbed by something unexpected.” I guess when Brutus stabbed him it was a bit unexpected. That was probably the only surprise party where the guest of honor was really surprised.
“E tu Brute.”

There are so many curve balls that can change your life. Benjamin Disraeli claimed, “The expected always happens.”  I would add that it’s the unexpected
that gets you. However, sometimes the unforeseen can change your life in a good way.

Before we met, an out-of-towner was visiting his aunt who lived in my community. She urged her nephew to ask me out on a date. Religiously opposed to blind dates, he refused her suggestion. In frustration, she got him in a chokehold and shouted, “All you have to do is ask the girl out. You don’t have to marry her!” He did and he did. I always claimed that my husband married me out of spite.

The unforeseen changed my life, as it has for many others. In medicine a milkmaid’s cowpox led to a smallpox vaccine. A dead dog’s pancreas, urine and some flies that liked sugar led to the discovery of insulin. Mold in a Petri dish brought us penicillin---All unexpected outcomes.

Accidents are always unexpected. That’s why they aren’t called on-purposes. One moment you can be taking your dog for a walk, and the next moment you can trip over his leash and break your arm.

Small children are good at the unanticipated. At the most inopportune time, invariably while you are doing something such as trying to unclog the toilet with a plunger, the wee one will ask, “Where do babies come from?”

What I don’t understand is why people are surprised by change. By the time you acquaint yourself with the latest technology, it is no longer the latest technology. Isaac Asimov noted, “All kinds of computer errors are turning up. You’d be surprised to know the number of doctors who claim they are treating pregnant men.”

A surprise is always unexpected unless it’s not a surprise. You know that the guest of honor wasn’t told about his surprise party when he shows up in his skivvies. Then there’s Lee Trevino who said, “My divorce came to me as a complete surprise. That’s what happens if you haven’t been home in 18 years.”

There are unexpected beginnings and unexpected endings and of course all the surprises in-between. For me, I always thought I’d get old, but I didn’t expect it would come so soon. Surprise!

So, my advice is: Meet serendipity head on when you can, and remember that the best mysteries have unexpected endings.

Esther Blumenfeld (When everything is coming your way, you’re in the wrong lane.”) Steven Wright