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The Zedonk Incident
Ok, I don’t really think there’s a zedonk conspiracy to take over the world. Northern Arkansas, maybe, because that’s where I last saw them, but get real. A conspiracy?
See, this is what happened. A couple years back, I visited Arkansas to chaperone a youth conference. While driving, our group spotted a farm with strange-looking donkeys. The body shape was a little off, but the markings were what really got us.
Black and white stripes. Lots of them.
“Zebra donkeys!” someone shouted. Ok, it might’ve been me. But I’m not admitting anything.
A donky-zebra cross. But what could they be called?
We tried all kinds of ideas—zonkey, donkbra—the teens loved that one—but we were too busy to Google the truth. The next morning—I kid you not—the word of the day popped up on my thesaurus app. Zedonk. And thus we knew.
I was quick to spread the word to my fellow zedonk admirers. And celebrate the serendipity of having our bizarre question answered—with no effort on our part—shortly after we wondered about it.
This incident disappeared into the shadowy halls of my memory until yesterday.
The Plot Thickens
I wrote a scene where a girl fell from the sky and was thinking about people scrambling for mattresses to save her life. Or maybe a car with a mattress tied to the top, positioning itself for the rescue.
I know, a little far-fetched. Unless, of course, I wrote the girl to be super durable or maybe have deceleration powers or an extraordinarily bouncy mattress.
But I digress.
The point, my friends, is that I saw a car driving around with a mattress tied to the top just a few hours later.
Coincidence? You tell me.
I saw that mattress-car-mash-up and thought, hey, it’s just like the zedonks!
Why Serendipity?
And it made me wonder—why do these things happen? What is the cause of serendipity or coincidence? Why in the world would I be writing about a mattress on a car and see one moments later? And the zedonk incident is even stranger.
As a fantasy writer, I cackle inside and think—what if I can write reality? What if strange things from my stories start appearing in real life?
Yikes. Actually, that would be scary.
Yeah, I don’t really believe that at all. But I’d like to know about the whys and hows of coincidence. Until then, I’ll use them as writing inspiration. But no coincidences in plot! Because that would be criminal.
What strange coincidences have you experienced? Where do you think they come from and what do they mean to you?
