TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — In this week’s Cate’s Corner, Keith Cate talks about serendipity.
Here are his thoughts:
“Look up a list of favorite words and you’ll see ‘serendipity’ near the top. It simply means finding something good when you’re not really looking for it.
Legendary Tampa Bay sportscaster, Dick Vitale, often used the word serendipity during ESPN basketball games. A player would do something remarkable that was completely unexpected, the crowd would go wild, and Dickie V would scream out, ‘serendipity baby… it’s awesome baby!’ And it was.
Scientists discover all kinds of things while pursuing something completely different; like penicillin, insulin, and the microwave. I came across a survey that shows 50 percent of all patents can be traced back to an inventor’s serendipitous process.
We’ve reported on serendipity during this pandemic; distilleries producing hand sanitizers, car makers manufacturing hospital ventilators and face masks, businesses reorganizing for work at home employees, educators restructuring for safer online teaching.
When conditions change, like they have during this crisis, great things can still happen.
We keep hearing how pharmaceutical companies are developing coronavirus vaccines at warp speed… accomplishing in months what used to take years. Considering some of our most successful drugs came about because a lab worker did something wrong makes me hopeful that scientists will discover something else that benefits the world as they pursue the first COVID vaccine. How serendipitous would that be?
When we get through this pandemic, I think many of us will look back and see how serendipity played a part in our personal lives. Maybe you’ve experienced it already. I’m not trying to sugarcoat the difficulties we still face. Your dreams may be on hold and it feels like you’re going backward. There’s confusion about tomorrow. I get that. But we need to stay strong, and safe and not get discouraged.
Trust that a little serendipity will be coming your way. As Dickie V would say, ‘serendipity baby… it’s awesome baby!'”
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