The Tale of Two Paint Skins

Raise your hand if you've never heard of The Three Princes of Serendip. 

Me either! 

Or am I the only one?  Since I can't see how many hands were raised, I'm going to assume I'm not alone.

According to my sources (my children and their cousins), this ancient Persian tale is not common knowledge these days.  However, back in 1754, it must have been because Horace Walpole, in a letter to Horace Mann, coined the word serendipity to describe "discovery by accidental sagacity".  Now, if you're interested in words and their origins and meanings, it's a fascinating trip down the rabbit hole.

However, the point of this post is to share a little bit of serendipity that happened here.  Serendipity in the most common usage these days: a happy accident.

Take two paint skins, created on separate occasions.  One with an accidental drip (which did not make me happy).  No plans, just playing with paints.

Put them together and we have:

Mount Serendip