Magic is afoot, part 1

A couple weeks ago, I laid out a Tarot reading in the morning to ask, "What do I need to understand about today?" I got a couple of cards, of which the important one was the Page of Pentacles. So I looked up that card in my handy cheat-sheet, and learned that it is a card for students. Huh? Am I supposed to start acting more student-like? What's this about, or is it just random gibberish?

Not long thereafter, I got a call from Son 2. He caught me up on his news. In the first place, his girlfriend had gotten a job a few weeks ago in a city that meant he now had a considerable drive each weekend to go see her. Actually I guess maybe I already knew that part, because he has been starting to look for jobs in the same city. He's doing it responsibly, to make sure he doesn't endanger his nascent career; still, he understandably wants to be living near her.

Then he added the next bit. The person who was his boss during his internship last year just called. She (the ex-boss) is now teaching at a university in the town where Son 2's girlfriend is working. She has a fully-funded research project that has to get done, and the graduate student who was working on it just bailed on her. She always liked Son 2 and thought he would be the best possible person to do this research. So ... has he ever thought of going to graduate school? Would he like to start now? Can he send her an application pronto, so she can grease the skids and get him accepted?

What do I need to understand about today? Student-hood. OK, got that.

Now, ... your mileage may vary, but in my world opportunities like that, which miraculously solve a bunch of problems all at once, don't just drop out of the sky. So yesterday I finally texted Wife. Normally she and I don't talk much, but I had to ask her something.

What do you think of Son 2's opportunity to go to grad school?

I think it's wonderful! The timing is almost miraculous considering [his girlfriend's] job in [the same town] .... Plus he wanted to go back to school eventually anyway, and this is a great opportunity.... Why? Do you have reservations?

No reservations on my side. I thought it remarkable how it just dropped into his lap ... almost like magic, if you forgive the expression. And so I wondered if you or someone else had done any [magical] work for it ...? [e.g., spell craft or prayer]

I had done [magical] work for ... [him to get] new work opportunities, not "a new job." This is certainly that .... So who knows? The gods work in mysterious ways. 

So that's it. You might argue that "magic" is fantasy, and so the fact that Wife did magic to get Son 2 a new work opportunity has no connection to this coincidence dropping in his lap. All I can say, from years of being married to Wife when she did magic regularly, is that sometimes it didn't work. But when it appeared to work, this is exactly what it always looked like—an implausible and fortunate coincidence dropping unexpectedly into your lap.

I'm calling it an explanation, because I've got nothing else.