Good topic, Vee! Here's one that happened to me recently.

One evening, while chatting with friends, I learned that a mutual acquaintance recently began working with a non-profit group named Better Angels. The group's goal (quoting from their website) is "to reduce political polarization in the United States by bringing liberals and conservatives together to understand each other beyond stereotypes..."

Everyone present was puzzled by the name "Better Angels" so we turned to Google and learned that the phrase is from Abraham Lincoln's first inaugural speech in which he states, "We are not enemies, but friends..." and suggests that we call upon "the better angels of our nature."

Later that evening, I opened my bedtime book and within moments, came to this:
Every day she’d come here, determined to say something to Armand. And every day she’d chickened out. Or, more likely, the better angels of her nature were straining on the reins, yanking her back. Trying to stop her.

I swear, I had never heard the phrase before that evening, and here it was in Louise Penny's book, The Long Way Home. Seemed like serendipity to me.

Vee, I am sure serendipity has happened many times in my reading, but I'm having trouble jogging my memory to come up with an example.

The nearest thing I can recall may be merely coincidence instead. With your nautical reference in my mind, I do remember reading about the Spanish-American War when the USS Marblehead, a light cruiser, was mentioned and a page or so later the USS Raleigh was also mentioned as being in the Caribbean at the same time. Something about these two ships rang a bell with me, then I realized they were the same ships my great uncles served on when they were in the Navy. I probably would not have known this if the ships weren't involved in a family joke.

The uncle who was on the Raleigh named his son after the ship. Cousin Raleigh never seemed to have been burdened by his name. The other uncle said he would name his son for the Marblehead. Some in the family worried that he actually would because he had a very quirky sense of humor.. It never came to pass because he had daughters.

Kathy, I think I have heard the phrase "better angels" but I had no idea it was something Abraham Lincoln said.

Frieda and Kathy, thanks for your comments. I had never heard of the better angels of our nature . . . and wouldn't it be commendable if the Better Angel group managed to get some understanding between the warring Parties?

Another small moment of coincidence happened to me only yesterday. For some reason I found myself thinking of the remains of the prehistoric man found in the ice of a Tyrolean Alp and wondering what he 'became' known as. Heaven knows why my brain came up with this strange question. It then clicked up another gear and I remembered he was given the name Öezti.

A couple of hours later I had the radio on in the kitchen and heard an 'Arts' programme where a film about this chap was being discussed. Apparently the cast is made up of 'well-fit' (as certain young females would say) 'beef-cake' with lots of glowing hair and very shiny teeth, They seem to have made up a type of grunt language and given the poor guy some sort of backstory as to why he died high up in the mountains, did he have an accident, was he beaten up and fell etc?

Just strange this 'connection' should take place so soon after I posted the thread.

If you have never heard of this man it makes interesting reading and his possessions found on his person show a degree of sophistication among his tribe that might mean they spoke in more than grunts.

The Iceman . . . plus lots of other sites available

Interesting, Vee. That is a strangely charming article about a 5,000+ year-old murder.

Vee, it sounds to me that the film is besmirching poor Oetzi. He died 5,300 years ago, not during the Paleolithic Era. He did more than grunt, language-wise.

I have followed the developments in the post-mortem story of Oetzi since the first news release of his discovery. He's one of my favorite archaeological celebrities. The recent finding that he was murdered just adds to my fascination with him.

That coincidence of you thinking of Oetzi and then out-of-the blue hearing a discussion about him is almost one those Twilight Zone moments -- I can hear the music.

Now I half expect to hear or see something soon about Oetzi from another source. But I suppose it won't really be serendipity if I'm already expecting it.

I like coincidences, as long as they aren't the threatening sort.

Frieda, I've found a 'trailer' for the film; difficult to make out the level of grunts but some good roaring, bellowing etc.

Der Mann Aus Dem Eis

Yes, eerie indeed, Yoyobon.

I am sure I have had many book coincidences, but none come to mind. I have a true life one to share.

My first father-in-law died many years ago from an unexpected heart attack. The next day my then mother-in-law, his widow, spoke to her son in my presence, asking if her son had any thoughts on what funeral/burial arrangements he guessed his father would have liked. He had no idea. But I spoke up. Just the day before his sudden death my FIL and I had had a conversation in which he explained to me in exact detail what he wanted, something he had never told his wife or children.

Now that was an eerie coincidence!

Vee: Ah! As evidenced by that 'trailer' Oetzi must have spoken something that sounded like a Proto-Germanic dialect. Oetzi died in the late fourth millennium BCE and Proto-Germanic was developing most fully in the first half of the first millennium BCE -- so that was quite a feat! Pre-Proto-Germanic might be more plausible. But how do they know? Oetzi could have spoken some other Pre-Proto- or Proto-Indo-European language or a non-Indo-European language.

But I'm taking this too literally and seriously. It's a Deutsch film after all. If it was an English-language film Oetzi would probably speak with an uncanny anticipation of an English dialect or, heaven forbid, an American one. It might be fun to watch the film with a let's-pick-this-apart attitude instead. I take it that that is your attitude. Right? :-)

Yoyo, a true 'hairs on the neck moment' especially in that locality.

That is eerie Rosefolly, especially as you say F-in-L had a sudden heart attack the following day. I wonder if he has some very slight premonition that all was not well?

Frieda, I suppose the German film is being shown with sub-titles as I imagine few in the audiences will be familiar with any sort of Proto languages. Think of trying to learn a script where no-one understands what they are saying!

And I am always my worst enemy when it comes to watching 'historical dramas' and moaning "Nobody would have said such and such/dressed in that way/walked down a London street where you can see the yellow/white road markings. . . etc

Did you notice the paleontologists describes Öetzi as 'lactose intolerant'. Now wouldn't it be a co-incidence if they also found him to be gluten intolerant? Talk about the intrusion of the Modern World.

Vee, the only serendipity here is that I loved Three Came Home when I discovered it some 20 years ago. At the same time, I also read The Walls Came Tumbling Down, by Henriette Roosenburg who made her way east after the war, across Europe and back to a Holland devastated by famine, when the guards at the prison/camp where she had been held simply disappeared. It's all told in the most matter of fact way, even the grimmest episodes and it reads like a post apocalyptic dream--not really a nightmare- because it's more about the triumph of the human spirit.

I hope you'll read that too. I encourage everyone here to try both books.

Many thanks laceyvail, I had never heard of Roosenburg but will look her up.

I have yet to read a book by someone who went through the horror of living in an occupied country or under arrest who writes with a hate-filled heart . . . although I imagine there must be some out there . . .

Is anyone familiar with The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier, I am David by Ann Holm or Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr? All three written for children to tell the story of survivors in a 'simple' but strong way.

Judith Kerr, who was a refugee from Nazi Germany has just celebrated her 90th birthday and is still writing and illustrating.

Below is an interview she gave; she has the most beautiful English accent with no trace of her native German.

Judith Kerr

Vee, have you read the book by Louis Zamperini, a Japanese prisoner of war, called Unbroken? He had a difficult time releasing his anger after the War.

I read The Silver Sword years ago as a child. It was offered in our school book purchase program. I remember liking it.

I also read and enjoyed Unbroken, one of my book club's favorite books ever. However it was about Zamperini, not by him. He actually had written his own memoir The Devil at My Heels in 2003 with the help of a professional writer. Later Laura Hillenbrand interviewed him extensively and wrote her own book with his approval. That is a story in itself, as Hillenbrand has chronic fatigue syndrome and did all the interviews by phone from her apartment, being too ill to travel and meet him.

Carolyn and Rosefolly many thanks for the info on Zamperini and Unbroken I was unfamiliar with either the man, the book or film.

My late Mother's brother was taken prisoner by the Japanese at the fall of the Philippines. He had been an officer on board a US merchant vessel berthed in Manila at the time of Pearl Harbor. The crew all jumped ship and joined up with the US military. As a young lieutenant he was one of the many 'left behind' after General MacArthur and his staff were evacuated from the islands. His/my family knew little of the conditions in which he suffered except that after his release and having lost much weight he was shipped to the US, then Chicago where he married the 'first girl he met' but within months was killed in a horrific accident . . . his car hit a fast-moving train, thought to be the result of the blackouts he suffered after leaving captivity.

My grandparents and mother never forgave the Japanese for what had happened. Thank God none of them ever lived to see my son marry a girl from that country; I doubt they would have accepted her.

Vee, my Dad was in the Phillippines in WWII, also. I'm not sure about him, but I know my Mom never forgave the Japanese, either.

Donna

This is not really a moment of serendipity but I found it interesting and envy-making in equal parts.

I occasionally 'do' some family tree research on behalf of friends and 99% of us are from a long line of butchers, bakers and candlestick makers or in my case ancestors who made nails right up until the 1850's and back as far as the 1590's. What an adventurous lot!

But I have just one friend who comes from a background of European quasi-aristocracy with too much money and time on their hands who in the 1800's wandered around German and French spas, having 'affairs', fighting duels, neglecting children. Some of this wealth had come from sugar plantations in Jamaica and as 'handouts' from the winning side of Revolutionary causes.

Going back another generation to the 1700's I found a 'respectable' family connection among the English landed gentry . My friend's 7 time great grandparents were called Hampson and Miss Rebecca Hampson married one William Austen who's son the Rev George married Cassandra Leigh who's seventh child was Jane Austen . . .

You will remember that Jane Austen mentions in Mansfield Park the 'interests' the Bertram family have in their Jamaican estates and in 'real life' the hard-up sons of the Austen's were helped by their wealthy relations.

Just thought I would share this find.

What fun! Being related to Jane Austen, however distantly, would be quite a thrill!

Another light bulb moment I had recently while blowing the dust off a yellowing copy of England's Story by Eva March Tappan published in 1901, the school book of one of my many VA US Great Aunts. Besides being surprised she was expected to learn so many dates of kings etc (a handwritten list inside names ALL the rulers of Scotland) I didn't realise English/Scottish history would have played much part in education in the US.

There were several chapters on the Saxon rulers way-back then, something I know too little about so when I popped in to a small exhibition in our local town 'celebrating' the industrial heritage of the area I was interested to see there was a display of artifacts dug up by a man using a metal detector. Among the ring-pulls from beer cans, old buckles, shell cases etc he showed me a silver coin from the time of Edmund the Elder 939 - 946, which he had found in a near-by field. It was about half an inch across and weighed almost nothing. A strange feeling to be holding something over a thousand years old!

My US book tells me Edmund was a grandson of Alfred (think burnt cakes) and the first Saxon ruler of all of England.

btw A US Wikipedia entry adds that he was 'coronated' in Kingston-on-Thames . . . we would say crowned . . .

Vee, English history might have played a role in American education in 1901, but much less so later in the 20th century. I remember learning about Battle of Hastings, the Magna Carta, and England's role in WWII in high school but that's about it. Oh wait, I almost forgot about the Revolutionary War, oops.

If I had not been reading lots of historical novels that got me curious and sent me to the encyclopedia, that would have been the extend of my knowledge on England as a young adult.