chance

The existence of fate, God, luck, and a whole host of more sketchy phenomena that would presumably help us know what the future holds will always be debated. Today's word denotes the one truly accessible aspect of the future. Chance is something we can calculate: the odds, the likelihood - there are numbers to back it up, and numbers are always more comforting than a large question mark. But the word also denotes the uncertain. To "chance" something is to take a risk, to count on luck or God or fate to deliver one from evil or otherwise ill consequences. This is perhaps overstating things - we are chancing something when we fail to put money in a parking meter, after all, and could a parking ticket really be considered evil? We leave things up to chance every single day; it is impossible to conquer, try as one might. The phrase "chance occurrence" is used to describe unlikely events, such as running into one's next door neighbor while travelling abroad, but isn't every trivial happening also a chance occurrence? We only take note of ones that strike us, and we act as though chance goes out of its way to serve up serendipity or doom on a platter, but every tiny facet of our reality that has not been prearranged by man (and the bounds of this category are extremely debatable) is thanks in some degree to chance. Or nothing is.

Last week's theme: The connection between "scarlet," "fear," "sign," "hound," and "detective" is Sherlock Holmes. More specifically, each of the first four words represents the Holmes novel whose title contains it. They are, in order of publication, A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of Four, The Hound of the Baskervilles, and The Valley of Fear. There were only four Holmes novels written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, so I was at a bit of a loss to choose a fifth word that would stand out among over 50 short stories. "Detective" was an excellent compromise, I decided, as it serves to none-too-subtly suggest the theme while also being part of the title "The Adventure of the Dying Detective."

I cannot recommend these tales highly enough. A Study in Scarlet is an excellent place to start as it was the first Holmes publication, introducing him to both Watson and the world.