Coincidences

One of the things I often hear at AA is that there are no coincidences. I tend to be a pragmatic, scientific, non-intuitive type person. I think coincidences happen all of the time as a matter of fact. So, I have a real hard time trying to shut up and just believe that things may not always be a coincidence. I am working on it.

At the racquetball tournament I mentioned earlier, I encountered such a coincidence. On Sunday, after my nervous searching for an alcoholic, any alcoholic, on Saturday night, I noticed one of the players in the tournament was wearing a t-shirt that said (on the back) "Back Off! I'm in Recovery!" I tapped him on the shoulder and asked to see what the front said. He excitedly showed me (it said "A Ditto" because you can't say AA because of some reason - probably copyright). He then explained that his dad (who was also in the tournament) was in AA (his dad piped in with "Two years!") and he had these shirts made in solidarity for him because he was so proud of him. I shook his dad's hand and kind-of whispered "Me too. Almost 3 months."

He was so nice! He took some time to talk with me, and got my address and email address. He then sent me the t-shirt (in pink!!) and a Big Book. (The Big Book is like the AA bible. They call it the Big Book because when it was first printed, it was on some large paper because they got a deal on it). We have kept in email contact. So, coincidence, or not? I still tend to think it was a happy coincidence, but whatever - it was nice!