Serendipitous thinking

I don't know who took this picture but I find it endearing as well as intriguing. But it is the way I found it that I wish to discuss.

I stumbled upon it.

There is a link on my blog to http://www.stumbleupon.com/. It's like Google only when you click on Stumble Upon it takes you randomly across the web. Well, not entirely randomly. It first asks you what sorts of things you'd like to stumble upon, and then off you go. It was invented by some Calgary boys, go Stampeders! So it's like a search engine but fuzzier and a lot less predictable, which is its whole point.

Is it cheating to program a machine to provide seredipitous events for us? Inside me somewhere there is a cranky old man slapping his forehead and saying, "My god, just live your own life, will you? Discover your own ladybugs in curious juxtaposition with waterdrops and daisies. Don't have some machine doin' it for you!" (Ageing hippies, do those words sound at all familiar?) But responding to the cranky old man is another voice saying, "Yeah, but... what does curious juxtaposition mean?"

And then adding, "One more word and it's the dumpster for you, old man!"

Serendipity comes to those who put themselves in the position to stumble upon it.