Is There Such A Thing As Coincidence?

The idea of forensics science has always fascinated me.  The interest stemming early from Law and Order marathons with my mom and transferring to CSI seasons for Christmas, the whole idea of the work was incredibly interesting.  And to not get creeped out or think I am entirely morbid, the gruesome and creepy deaths were not the reason the show held so much intrigue.  The reason that those shows kept me watching was that the way the scientists pieced together the puzzle of someone's life was all so simple and clean.  Everything that the person owned had meaning to who they were. Every single object helped get the team one step closer to solving the mystery.  There were no random artifacts that the people owned, nothing ambiguous or pointless, it all made sense.  

A common line heard in these shows, usually right before a dramatic commercial break is, "I don't believe in coincidences".  The majority of the time it is uttered by the main brooding character as he finally puts the murder all together.  The characters in the show never have objects or friends just to have them.  On television there is no coincidence.  But I believe that real life is another story.

In American Studies, our first assignment was to work in groups to write a biography on the life and death of a teacher we had never known.  Through various artifacts and interviews we had to piece together an entire man's life.  Most of the objects at our disposal were very useful.  An ad for another member of a band, a CD, and a student ID card all helped us figure out our late teacher.  But many of the artifacts were misleading.  A rubber mouth didn't mean that Mr. Bolos was a dentist, it didn't mean that it meant something to his family, unpredictably the mouth was just there- belonging to a speech therapist friend, having nothing to do with Mr. Bolos.  

Not everything people own means something important to them.  I believe that there are coincidences and in order to properly find information about some one's life, one needs to be able to except that people have things or do things just because.