From Uncle John's Heavy Duty Bathroom Reader:
"After actress Brittany Murphy, 32, died of a heart attack while taking a shower in December 2009, First Look Pictures immediately recalled and replaced the DVD cover art for her recently released film, Deadline. The reason: It depicted Murphy as a lifeless corpse lying in a bathtub."
The lesson we can take from this: Sometimes things just happen. Now, I deeply believe there are times when things happen for a reason. Sometimes what we want to call a "coincidence" is God orchestrating His divine plan for our lives.
But, sometimes things do "just happen." Some people would read this story and say: "Well, she cursed herself by letting herself be depicted dying in a shower." The truth is people die in the shower every day. In fact, my grandfather passed away in 1995 after having a heart attack in the shower. And to come at it from the other side, every day actors in film, theater & TV regularly "die" without dying.
If every actor who died in real life died the same way they died while acting, then we could say Brittany Murphy's death was not a coincidence. An example of this is the "Madden Curse." Almost every NFL star who has appeared on the cover of the Madden NFL video game box art has experienced a decline in performance, usually due to an injury.
David McRaney at the "You Are Not So Smart" blog talks about the Texas Sharp-Shooter Fallacy. (David is a genius. It would be well worth your time to read this post...)
The basic premise is that with hindsight being 20/20, we take what are really random events and force them into an picture that makes sense to us. We don't like randomness.
The hard part is discerning when something is a random coincidence and when it's not. And if you figure out how to do that, let me know so you can teach me...
1 comment:
I have to agree that this was probably just a coincidence as you mentioned Todd. However, as I'm sure you would agree, there is also a law of sewing and reaping, as I believe we are seeing in the state of the nation right now. Some believe in the law of sewing and reaping when it advances their cause,such as when environmental groups blame global warming (if it really exists) on man-made causes- burning fossil fuels ect. Such beliefs have certainly enriched former vice president Gore and certain other environmental groups. I firmly believe that you can't plant grapes and harvest pineapples, but as you mentioned, some things are just random.
Tom
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