In The Secular Scripture, I was Startled to Read:

Startled might be a little bit strong. To rephrase, I might say that I read something that I found particularly thought provoking. 

On pages 47-48 in The Secular Scrpiture, Frye brings up the difference between "and then", and "hence". The distinction that Frye makes between narrative using the terminology "and then" as opposed to the terminology "hence", and the implications of these little words really stuck with me. In terms of coincidences, I could not help but imagining if all of the stories we old used the word "hence", implying a deterministic nature of coincidences. I guess that this would lead us back to our previous argument about coincidence versus synchronicity. If the word "hence" were always to be used in real life instead of the words "and then", than all coincidence would instead be synchronicity. 

It's not that the reading itself startled me, but I startled myself in how much I clung to this notion. I was sitting in the library desperately wishing that we lived in a world of "hence"s. A world where all coincidences meant something much larger than two similar events. A world of "and then" is so boring. so tedious. A world that has little room for magic. A world of "hence", on the other hand, allows us a world full of meaning; where every action determines the actions to come. Further, imagine if we all lived in a world where even though coincidences were merely "and then", as they are today, but we treated our own choices as if they had "hence" implications? Wouldn't the world be a better place to live in? 

I'm sorry, I stray quite a bit from the book. I was startled by my own reaction to a seemingly small idea presented in this book.