American poet, Dorothy Parker said: "The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity." How does this play in to this week's word 'serendipity?' Serendipity is having good luck in an unexpected yet fortunate discovery. Curiosity plays a role in the "fortunate discovery" part.
Something that is serendipitous is more than just a fancy word for having lucked out on an event. When examining the word's history we see that a English novelist, Horace Walpole, coined it in a letter penned to America's Horace Mann. In it, he referenced a Persian Fairy Tale: "The Three Princes of Serendip" whose heroes "were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity of things they were not in quest of. Serendip was the old name for the modern city of today's Sri Lanka.
Serendipity is an accidental stroke of good luck based on prior "sagacity." The root of sagacity is "sag" coming from the Old English 'secon' which means to seek or track down. This level of mental desire, to inquire or to be curious, brings about a keenness of perception. Today we would use the word wisdom for the word sagacity.
If you put these two concepts together, accidental luck + wisdom it would equal the meaning of serendipity. We could all use serendipitous moments once in awhile. We almost resent, at times, when others experience pure "luck" and we're left thinking, "how come it couldn't be me?" This brings us back to curiosity.
Some of the more famous examples of serendipity involved famous discoveries: Isaac Newton's well-known apple falling from a tree which led to his curious thoughts about the nature of gravity. The field of science would never be the same after this "aha" moment.
Alexander Fleming, who discovered Penicillin, accidentally forgot to disinfect cultures of bacteria from petrie dishes which then turned into molds which killed deadly bacteria. His curiosity kept him on a path that would lead to one of the most serendipitous and life-saving discoveries in history.
The key to these moments is that you're not exactly searching for a specific something, but your mind is open with an ever-ready curiosity which allows you to be prepared for the unexpected, the fortunate, and the lucky strike.
Do "accidents" just happen? Yes. Can a person have a "stroke of pure luck" Yes. However, the essence of serendipity depends on our keen perception, curiosity, and simple practical ability to take advantage of opportunities and be prepared for the moments of serendipity and turn them into unforgettable nuggets of good fortune. Maybe then, you can exclaim like Archimedes did, "Eureka!"