Why did you ask ME that?

A couple of weeks ago, while on vacation, I was hiking the Grove of Titans trail at Jedidiah Smith Redwoods State Park. I was coming back to the trailhead, when a young lady, I'm guessing early 20s, perhaps late teens, asked me, "Isn't this the most beautiful spot in the world?" or something very similar.

It was quite a nice spot. And, since the various state parks in the Redwood State and National were created before the national park, they arguably have the best lands within the system.

That said, per the old Latin phrase, de gustibus non disputandum, this is to some degree a subjective question. I indicated that, and noted I had been at a few other places that could be in the running. (She was from Los Angeles and might not have been to many such places.)

But, that's a secondary issue.

Why did you, a young attractive lady (and she was, indeed) ask ME that, instead of somebody else?

There was no flirtation involved on her part. And, physically, yes, she was attractive, but, and don't take this sexist-ly, but it wasn't in a "foxy" sense. It was in a fit, slim, attractive, healthy, well-scrubbed sense.

After I got back to the trailhead and hopped in my rental, some part of me thought, and kind of wished I had said to her, in a non-horny sense, something to the effect of "If I were a lot younger, I would feel [have said] 'wherever you are is the most beautiful spot.'"

I then thought about the idea of serendipity, which is part of why I'm journaling here right now.

In short, this reinforced that I reject the idea of serendipity, at least in the quasi-metaphysical to fully metaphysical way that most people mean it. Just like I reject that idea of "luck."

In fact, the two are tied together, on a non-metaphysical definition of luck.

Serendipity is just some people being luckier than others after a chance event that takes on ex post facto meaning due to that later luck.

It would be nice if this meeting had been serendipitous. I'm not holding my breath.