A Butterfly on my Shoulder

feathers don't fall in straight lines

A Butterfly on My Shoulder

 

     Life is a series of random events that when strung together, like missing pieces in a puzzle, are not as random as we once supposed. When we stitch

together these events into one large event calendar that records the moments of our lives, we would come away quite surprised. We would see a myriad of correlating patterns, moments that tie into many other moments, even though those moments can be decades apart.

 

     For the purposes of this essay we will concentrate on moments in our lives when things went wrong but when the dust finally settled in a day, month or even years later, those bad or wrong moments in our lives, were in reality a blessing in disguise. A string of random events that weren’t as random as we thought. Below is but a few examples (from the events of my life) of what I call a more personalized butterfly effect.

 

     I was living in Burbank, California with barely a penny to my name. Like thousands before me I was out to make my mark as an actor. Being hungry and broke was one of the many perks of pursuing the elusive goal of being a working actor. I made many a trip to the local supermarket, securing tidbits of food on the cheat. While in the process of leaving the supermarket after commandeering a small package of sausages and a jar of instant coffee, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I was busted. Being that it was Friday; I spent three days in the county jail. On Monday I was led in chains to the courthouse, sentenced to time served and freed. A lot of things went wrong on those three days.

 

     A few years later, eight to be exact, I was up for a county job. I took the civil service test, passed with flying colors and was accepted into the Sheriff’s department. I passed all the physiological tests and the physical. Academy training was to start in two weeks. I never made it to day 1. I failed to put down that I was arrested for shoplifting. My Parents desperately wanted me to have this job and told me to leave being arrested off the application form. I was in New York and the petty crime was done in California, they would never check. They were wrong, they did check. It wasn’t the fact that I was arrested that lost me the job but the investigator told me it was because I lied on the Application that disqualified me. If I got that job my life would have taken a whole different path. But things went wrong, one little lie made the butterfly leap off my shoulder.

 

     After that I drifted from job to job and ended up getting my Insurance License and working for Metropolitan Life as one of those annoying Insurance guys.  The receptionist in my office so happened to be a young and beautiful gal named Virginia. I was smitten, asked her out, and the rest was history. Virginia and I have now been married for thirty happy years.

 

     Three random events turned out to be not so random after all. If I didn’t lie, get caught or better yet, paid for my items instead, my arrest would have never happened. No record. I would have gotten the job at the Sherriff’s department and pursued a career in Law Enforcement rather than trying my hand at insurance working for a large company where a little black haired pixie worked.   

 

     Getting arrested and losing the job with the county was my blessing in disguise. Three separate events, seemingly random and having nothing to do with each other were actually life-altering events tied and linked closely to each other. My butterfly may have left my shoulder from time to time but he always came back to rest. Life is a tapestry of design...      

    

 

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

        

Reviews

[Foxembers]

That is awesome. I've never really thought of it like that.