Today a young man came into the hardware store where I work needing a single screw to fix his hockey helmet. He didn't know what size the screw had to be, the thread pitch, or even if it was SAE or metric. But he had the helmet with him so I was confident that we could find the right fastener by trial and error, and we headed over to the fastener aisle where there are literally hundreds of products from which to choose.
I examined the threaded hole the screw would need to fit and went to the section of the department where I felt I would find the exact product we needed. While I was perusing the the drawers looking for a likely place to start my search, the customer spied a lone screw lying on the shelf - an orphan that someone had taken out and not returned to its proper place. He picked it up, screwed it into the helmet, and it fit! It was the right size, the right length, the right thread and the right head - it was perfect! Thirty seconds after we arrived in the aisle he had the screw he needed and the repair was completed (no thanks to me, I might add).
So here's my question for you - was he just really, really lucky (I told him to buy a lottery ticket on his way home) or did he have some "help" in the process? I've seen this type of thing happen often enough to convince me that there has to be something more than just blind luck in action. I'm not ready to tell you that it was a Guardian Angel who provided the assist, but really - do you have a better explanation?
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