“That maxim, ‘There are no atheists in foxholes,’ it’s not an argument against atheism — it’s an argument against foxholes.” — James Morrow
People who are certain about uncertainties scare me. I have experienced some horrific things in my life that will make you question whether or not God exists or if she does, you will wonder what kind of God lets this happen. I also believe in miracles. Logically, there seems to be more upside than downside by believing in them. What if those people who do not believe in miracles never experience them? My life lessons tell me there is some sort of law of attraction at work with these kinds of things. It is like what Paulo Coehlo wrote in one of my all-time favorite novels, The Alchemist, “And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”
If that is too new age pseudoscience for you, then what do you think about a combination of wishful thinking and hard work aimed at that thinking. Call it vision combined with action or as Coleman Cox wrote, “I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more of it I seem to have.”
As I reflect upon my life so far, there seems to be an interconnectedness to it all. Yes, there is chaos, randomness, and I get that correlation does not equate to causation. There are also some pretty meaningful coincidences that I cannot explain. I feel like what is going through my head is what Forrest Gump says as he talks to Jenny at her grave and debates what his mama taught him about free will and what Lieutenant Dan taught him about destiny:
“I don’t know if we each have a destiny, or if we’re all just floatin’ around accidental-like on a breeze, but I, I think maybe it’s both. Maybe both is happenin’ at the same time.”
Maybe it is both. My life is full of meaningful coincidences and maybe you have to put yourself out there to see them. In the mid-nineties I used to listen to, run to, and try to call these Marine Corps cadences (motivational songs for drilling, marching, and running) that I had on a cassette tape [Author’s note: it was very popular with all the girls]. The voice on the tape was this booming, unforgettable, and legendary Marine Corps Drill Instructor, Joe L. Vines, Sr. Fast-forward to the war in Iraq in 2003 and I find myself serving alongside now Sergeant Major Vines, the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines Seargeant Major (the most senior enlisted Marine). What made it even more surreal was hearing him lead us in a spine-chilling rendition of the hymn Amazing Grace to honor the tragic and unexpected death of the Battalion Executive Officer, Major Kevin Nave.
Another meaningful coincidence was my selection at the The Basic School (six months of learning to be an Officer of Marines in the lovely woods of Quantico, Virginia also known as The Big Suck and Time Between Sex) to be the first new lieutenant in many years to lead a night live fire exercise. This meant coordinating machine guns, automatic weapons, grenades, and illumination being fired simultaneously by a dozen new officers in the darkness while not getting anyone hurt. We were told that the school removed this from training due to safety concerns about unintended friendly fire incidents. I will never forget Colonel John R. Allen, the Commanding Officer of the Basic School (and now retired 4-Star General Allen) who brought this important training back, accompanied me and my squad on the range, putting himself in harm’s way, and he personally congratulated us at the conclusion of the exercise for effectively and safely executing the mission. Fast forward three years later to the battle for Baghdad and I was literally leading my team through a night attack and counter-ambush with 1st Battalion, 5th Marines. While we took numerous casualties, my team made it to Saddam’s palace alive. The training worked, but why was I the one to get it?
Probably the biggest synchronicity I have ever experienced had to do with the fact that Randy Meyer and I were randomly assigned as teammates in 2000 at Marine Corps Counterintelligence (CI) School and then ended up teammates again in Iraq. The big coincidence was not simply being on the same team twice — the big coincidence was that Randy and I cracked the case in the final exercise of CI School which involved a scenario of a US Marine Corps Corporal who had been taken hostage by a terrorist group. Randy and I stayed up late one night and solved the case days before the instructors expected anyone to solve it. Eventually we got to debrief a role player acting as the repatriated Corporal Brown and Randy and I jokingly said to each other, “who gets to do POW debriefs anymore? This is some Vietnam War era shit.” Fast forward to 2003 and Randy and I are on the Human Intelligence Exploitation team (HET) that tracks, locates, and negotiates the safe rescue of our seven American Prisoners of War. As we spent a couple of hours debriefing these soldiers, all I could think about was that someone meant for us to be the ones to find them.
I asked Randy what he thought explains what happened — why were we the ones who found them? He said, “I believe it is a mix of destiny and creating your own opportunity. You cannot just let life happen to you and expect it to turn out well. You have to get outside the wire and make it happen.” And for me, maybe it is like that old saying, “A coincidence is a small miracle where God chose to remain anonymous.” I just cannot know for sure.
