Musings from the Ozone

ARE YOU READY TO BE SURPRISED?

-- Steve Goodier

Are you ready to be surprised? Life is full of surprises - to those who are aware.

History records amazing coincidences in the lives of two of America's founders - Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. You are aware that Jefferson labored for two weeks writing the Declaration of Independence. He showed his drafts to Adams and Benjamin Franklin, who edited it, honed Jefferson's ideas and refined the document. When it was finally finished, he brought it before the Continental Congress for approval. And America remembers her birth date, of course, as July 4, 1776.

Jefferson and Adams spent the next 50 years debating ideas about how this new nation should govern itself and what it should eventually become. Their administrations argued philosophies and legislation. Sometimes the two men were contentious, but later in life they seemed to develop more of an appreciation for each other. Though they lived far apart, they faithfully corresponded.

Surprisingly (and coincidentally) , they both died the same day! Adams is said to have uttered, just before he died, "Thomas Jefferson survives." He couldn't have known that Jefferson himself died only a few hours earlier.

Do you know what that day was? July 4 - Independence Day. Do you know what year? It was 1826, exactly 50 years from the signing of the Declaration of Independence. And the coincidences don't end there.

Couriers were dispatched with the news of the great men's deaths. From Braintree, Massachusetts the messenger with news about Adams traveled south. Jefferson's messenger came north from Monticello, Virginia. Do
you know where they met? In Philadelphia ... under the shadow of the great hall where both men's lives were so dramatically shaped, and where they labored to give birth to a nation.

Coincidence? Perhaps. But historians of the day often attributed these coincidences to providence - as a good omen for a new nation.

Our lives are full of surprises and amazing coincidences, though we may not always take notice. Whether or not we see the hand of providence in coincidence, life teems with the remarkable.

Learn to notice what others do not see, and you can expect to be surprised. Learn to notice what others do not see, and what you see will amaze.