The tale of the broken pickle jar

Muse #541 - is there something called destiny?

Just yesterday we had gone to the nearby Indian Grocery store for a grocery run. The 777 brands of pickles were on sale - 1 for 1 free. And this morning I made toast which we pair with cheese and spicy pickles.

I thought about using one of the pickles I bought yesterday. These were stored at a higher level on the shelves and lo-and-behold when I tried to get one, it fell on my nose hit my hand, and crashed on the floor. Splat! Broken glass and spicy pickles with oil on the floor. And thanks to my wife a cleanup campaign persisted and brought things under control.

Even though I know it is an accident, something that is driven by chance, a lot of questions go swirling around in my head.

• Was the bottle destined to fall and break?

• Was it the free one from the 1-for-1 offer that broke?

• Or was it the paid one that broke?

• And why would I believe that I would feel better if the free one broke rather than the one paid for broke instead?

Such is the brain doing these post-rational justifications. To what I end, I still don’t know. But this Saturday morning is etched in my memory to remember every time I open that cupboard or go to the Indian Grocery store to buy anything next time. These triggers will keep tabling these memories due to the formation of patterns of thoughts driven by memory association of factors like objects, locations, and events. For life.