I have an ushakeable fear that one day Murphy's Law will overcome the Law of Averages, and leave me thoroughly, albeit accidentally, screwed. I'm referring to plagiarism--I have this recurring nightmare that one day I will pen a brilliant paper on communication theory, only to discover later that I've somehow exactly duplicated five random pages out of Neil Postman. Unlikely? Extremely. But, possible? Of course, and therein lies my fear.
The strange thing about coincidence is really that we find it coincidental. If I had a computer generate a random string of numbers, I would see no revelation in the sequence 34 78 93 40 13 97. However, if 01 02 03 04 05 06 appeared on the screen "at random," how could I fail to interpret it as a miracle of the divine? Yet, if we're picking randomly, "01" is no more improbable than "34" as a first choice, and so on, and so forth. Our interpretation of the data imposes a sense of order where none may exist.
I guess this isn't an exact parallel to the accidental ruination of my fledgling writing career, but it still makes me nervous. If enough people keep writing long enough, surely there is a chance that we will begin to repeat each other in some ways, as a wife passes her idiosyncrasies on to her husband through time and proximity.
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1 comment:
Oh no! Will my dear husband look, act, and sound like ME?! Poor Tim...
Seriously, we HAVE begun to resemble each other — just as an old slipper takes on the characteristics of the foot that has worn it over the years. Comfortable, not boring.
Safe, not laced with insecurity and tension.
I heard recently that it takes 9 to 15 years in a marriage for the “single” mindset to be replaced by a oneness, unified, together kind of thinking.
Hard work, yet worth it all!
I am way off the subject of your blog, but couldn't resist commenting on your final observation! smile.
Keep on writing. we love to read what is going on in your head and heart...
love and prayer, the meisels
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