DO YOU BELIEVE IN COINCIDENCE?

Bonjour mes belles,

Today something interesting happened to me.
As you know from the little description box, I am a communications student in Winnipeg. I was at school and I was becoming slightly frustrated because there is a public speaking engagement taking place in Minneapolis on October 14th (Fran herself, of course) and I desperately want to go, yet it appears that may not happen. I started off by posting status updates on facebook in attempt to garner interest and see if anyone wanted to accompany me. Once that proved unsuccessful, I began to talk about it more with my classmates. To my surprise, yet simultaneous expectation (if that makes sense), no one seemed overly interested in going with me. I grew increasingly desperate and called on a few friends who have dragged me along to such events as Kylie Minogue concerts in Montreal but again, no luck. This made me really sad because it kind of provoked the feeling of unfamiliarity and even isolation I experience at the realization that no one seems to like the things I like (this happens rather frequently when you become interested in bette midler and sewing lessons at the age of fourteen). Needless to say, it’s kind of an ongoing thing.
I left school thinking a lot about where I am, geographically, and if things will change in new york. I literally said to myself in my head “isn’t there anyone in Winnipeg who I can have discussions with, particularly, discussions about topics that I am legitimately interested in?”
I got on the bus and called my friend who we will call Beatrice. Beatrice is in her sixties and is another grandmotherly figure in my life. At the end of the conversation she asked me what the speakers name is again; the one I want to see.

“Fran Lebowitz.”

“How do you spell that darling?”

“Fran...like, you know, Fran. And Lebowitz. L-E-B-O-W-I-T-Z.”
She agreed to look her up and we hung up the phone.
In the next minute or so, an older man sitting in front of me on the bus looked up.

“You like Fran Lebowitz?”
“What?”

“Fran Lebowitz, are you a fan?”

I was in utter shock at his perfect pronunciation of her name-- he clearly was aware of who this was and all of the sudden, someone was speaking my language.

the book he gave me

“Yes! I love her, she is absolutely brilliant!”

“I agree. I read her first collection of essays, Metropolitan Life, a few years back.”

“I just ordered them in the mail, I can’t wait until they get to my house this week!”

“Nice to see someone young like you interested in a thinker like Fran. If you like her you should look into Sarah Vowell. I read a lot of her stuff too.”

“Do you read every day?”

“Every single day. If you don’t already have one you should get a library card. They have everything at the library and it’s a cheap way to continuously inform your mind.”

After this we continued to discuss various authors and books and he ended up giving me the book he had in his hands.

“I just finished it actually, provides a great sense of escapism. It’s yours.”

As he got off at an earlier stop and we went our separate ways, I experienced an overwhelming sense that I was supposed to meet this person. I had thanked him for talking to me, for bringing it up, and he said he enjoyed our conversation too. He joked that he works construction and trying to discuss literature and such figures as Fran is not really a success among the other guys. As I walked home I realized that my faith that there are people who care about the things I care about and who are willing to engage in informed and intellectually challenging discussion was restored.

What do you believe? I would love to hear any stories that come to mind or just general thoughts on coincidence as opposed to the notion of 'meant to be.'