Ever had that experience of looking for something, or just stumbling around and you discover some other wonderful idea or experience? When we find things by chance we can speak of it as serendipity.Serendipity is a common experience and the word was coined in the eighteenth century by Horace Walpole, reputed to being the most prolific letter writer in history.
Walpole was inspired by the Persian fairy tale “The Three Princes of ‘Serendip’ (Sri Lanka, really, but try saying ‘Sri-lankaty). The princes found a lame, blind-in-one-eye, toothless camel with a pregnant maiden atop that no one else, somehow, noticed, and received great unexpected riches.
Source: Martin Feldman, The Toothless Camel, Britannica Blog, 30 March 2007.
Image: Toothless camel?