For all of you fellow Coincidentalists (at last count, there were seven of us):
Despite sharing the same name and the same triple-diamond logo, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (cars, rockets, air conditioners) and Mitsubishi Pencil (pencils, pens, markers) are separate companies that launched independently of each other.
The pencil company started in 1887.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries was launched in 1897.
Neither company was aware of the other at the time of launch.
The same names and nearly identical logos were entirely coincidental.
A reader named Ben in Berlin, Germany, made a few excellent proposals for Coincidentalism that I liked a lot:
- Incense would be replaced with dice — gently rolled instead of solemnly swung. A small, respectful acknowledgment that probability is doing most of the heavy lifting.
- The butterfly would be our symbol. Not mystical. Not spiritual. Just a quiet reminder that tiny, almost invisible movements can ripple outward in wildly disproportionate ways.
Pretty good. Huh?
Here’s a first draft:
He also asked me to consider writing a list of Commandments.
I’m currently working on the list.
Suggestions welcomed. No artificial intelligence, please. Only human stuff here.
