ninjas & non-coincidences

today as i was huddled with a bunch of other journalists while doorstepping the various foreign ministers & defense ministers outside the eu council building, life threw me one of those non-coincidences.

out of nowhere & during a lull in the action, a guy who worked inside the council building walked up to the area where we were all standing & asked my friend to hold a small, stamp-sized sticker so that he could take a picture of it with his iPhone. everyone sort of looked puzzled because the guy in the suit had just come out of the blue – and with a weird request, no less. i guess he grasped everyone’s confusion because he went on to explain that the sticker was actually a special, one-of-a-kind design that he & his friends had come up with to memorialize their recently deceased friend who had died in a skydiving accident. and the guy’s request to have the sticker’s photo taken in front of a press corps full of cameras was his attempt at capturing the sticker in the limelight to illustrate to the rest of the sticker’s designers.

after the sad mention of his passed-on friend, everyone remained somewhat perplexed at the bizarre nature of the request, but felt sorry for the guy, so my friend obliged & he passed her the sticker to hold while he got his camera ready. and then it happened: out of the corner of my eye, i caught a glimpse of the sticker & immediately stopped the guy mid-snap to confirm what i thought i saw displayed on it:

ninjas are sweet, indeed. but they’re even sweeter when they’re in cartoon form throwing chinese fighting stars with your name plastered above them. what are the odds, really?

i don’t believe in coincidences & i’m a big believer in signs, but i’m still trying to make sense of this one… i’ve already been skydiving, so this can’t be a “don’t ever go skydiving” message - although kudos, my fellow brekke, at least you went out doing something you love. maybe it’s an affirmation of my long-standing desire to learn kung fu. perhaps it means i could become a ninja if this journalism gig doesn’t work out. hmmm. thoughts welcome.

after i told the eu suit guy i shared the name with his lost skydiving friend, he gave me the sticker. and regardless of whatever significance the sticker finding its way to me holds, i plan to carry it in my wallet pretty much forever.