Oh God ... You are so big ...
So absolutely huge
Gosh, we’re really impressed down here!
-- From Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life

Snapshots from a weekend in Hocking Hills State Park ...

In the Waterfall at Old Man’s Cave, I found myself standing knee-deep in ice-cold water with five eighth-grade boys and BGSU senior Mark King (the biggest kid of all), breaking apart a cracked coconut and hearing Mark propose a "toast" ...

"To YOUTH! May we never outgrow it!"

You’ve got the idea, Mr. King ...

Just so you understand -- that was before Mark and I ran into the really very nice state park officer who explained very nicely that future "showers" would cost us $78.00 each for wandering off the beaten path. Yes, sir!

"You were lucky he didn’t fine you right then and there," Katie said to Mark later.

"Oh, there’s no such thing as luck," replied Mark. "I don’t believe in coincidence."

"No such thing as coincidence, huh?" broke in Mary Caren as she dealt another hand of euchre. "The just what is it you do believe in?"

Mark smiled. "Serendipity."

Was it a coincidence, then, that the bus broke down, forcing the adults to improvise a shuttle system for transportation -- forcing the youth to interact with each other in ways different than those they were used to?

Was it luck?

Was it serendipity?

The older woman -- we never did find out her name, but the license plates were from Seneca County -- stepped out of her car saying to no one in particular (but in our group’s general direction), "What a beautiful day. A bit cloudy -- some sun would be nice about now."

Just at that moment (seriously!) a brilliant sunbeam engulfed the parking lot, seriously impressing a group of Toledo teens. And whether it was coincidence or not, one stepped up and said, "Uh, ma’am? Do you think you could pray over our bus?"

Cedar Falls ... Ash Cave ... Rock House ... the beauty of Hocking Hills can be overwhelming, calmingly so.

Even when the annual inevitable terrible joke is made: "Gee whiz! What a wonder of nature that erosion could form such a beautiful natural staircase all over the park!"

Groan ... I suppose it’s no coincidence, though, that the crack is made every year -- and always gets a laugh.

As the poet once wrote, "Coincidences are simply those times we fail to recognize the hand of God."

So it may have been serendipity that brought us all to Cedar Falls at that precise time of day when the Falls sparkle most, and the awesome specter of the rock formations is at its ... well, awesomest.

Mary Caren sat on a log next to me as Mark charged away -- like a kid! -- to coerce Chris, the self-proclaimed BGSU "math geek" into the waterfall; sometimes, to a kid, fines are irrelevant, luck is irrelevant, coincidence is irrelevant ... and serendipity is magical.

So as she watched Mark wade into the water, Chris firmly in tow, Mary Caren asked me "What’s on your mind?" The immediate -- and honest, though perhaps somewhat whimsical -- answer came in the words of British comedian John Cleese, who once prayed "Gosh, we’re really impressed down here!"

But, had I thought about it, a better answer sitting at that waterfall had been spoken at the previous one ...

"Youth ... may we never outgrow it!"