SERENDIPITY noun \ ser-ən-ˈdi-pə-tē \
The faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for. The occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way. The name of David and Kim’s Airstream Classic.
That’s it. That’s both the name and the major theme of this blog.
Let me start by drawing your attention to the category headers at the top. I expect the preponderance of articles to fall under the AIRSTREAM menu, as that will be our mobile home on the road as we explore the highways and backroads of America. There could be bits here about places, people, history, or really anything I might think is interesting enough to write about. But the unifying factor will be the Airstream, without which I likely wouldn’t be writing about anything.
Ideally, we'll happen across (in a happy or beneficial way, of course) instances of a couple other subjects which particularly capture my attention, namely RECORDS (as in 33 1/3 RPM vinyl platters, specifically, and music in general) and TRAINS (railroads, both full-scale and model, and the era in which they reigned as the supreme mode of transport). I’ll be happy if I have much to write about these, but there’s always that element of chance that I might find rather less than I hope. Serendipity can’t be forced.
Then there’s that last one – THOUGHTFOOD. I’d like to think it’s a word I made up – and it did pop into my head, apropos of nothing – but I’m sure you’d get back a million or more results if you Googled it. After all, with nearly 8 billion people walking the earth, not to mention billions more who have come before, it’s immensely difficult to be truly original. Where you are guaranteed uniqueness, though, is in the sum total of the mental connections you make. My intention for these little mind stimulants, therefore, is to stave off the onset of mental myopia by stocking the shelves of the library from which you draw these connections. Maybe just a question, or a sentence or two. It’s served me well in the past, implicitly and introspectively. We’ll see how it turns out. Could be very light reading if these thoughts don't escape from my head onto the page.
Though I’ll be writing primarily for myself, it wouldn’t be all that bad if a few others find some valuable and agreeable things not sought for. In a word, serendipity.