"...On Coincidence...And Connecting The Dots..."

Another change of season is upon us.

And, with that change, comes another anniversary.

An anniversary, that once upon a time, was the stuff of tribute TV and radio shows, network news opening stories and comprehensive print media coverage.

Today, not so much.

November 22 will be the 48th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

If you are over the age of 55, the date and the event are most likely still able to evoke memories of what felt like a history shaking time.

If you are younger than 50, that day has always most likely been just another benchmark to be found in the pages of your garden variety American history textbook.

Along with, among other things, the attack on Pearl Harbor, Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic, even all the way back to Ford's Theater and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

Speaking of which...

At the time of JFK's killing, found floating in the sea of ink printed on reams and reams of paper, was a list, at the time, mysterious ,even bizarre, of "coincidences" connecting Lincoln and Kennedy.

Snopes.com, ever the pin wielding popper of overinflated informational balloons, took a sizable number of the similarities to task.

The list, and Snopes' applicable poo-pooing can be found here...

http://www.snopes.com/history/american/lincoln-kennedy.asp

Parlor game fun at pondering the possibilities aside, Snopes' snoops make a fair point that you can take just about any fact or facts and connect the dots in a way that make said facts look extraordinary.

And I think any good shrink would agree with the premise that we sometimes need those kinds of extraordinarily connected dots to try and make some kind of sense out of events that seem senseless.

Time and perspective have provided, as well, the theory that one reason the conspiracy folks can't let go is the simple inability to wrap heads around the possibility that a larger than life, walking through history figure like Kennedy could have been eliminated, in the mere space of 4.5 seconds and three rifle shots, by a failed weasel nobody like Oswald.

It must have been something grander than that.

It had to be.

Then again, maybe it was just a flukey combination of good and evil being in the right place at the right time.

Just a coincidence.