In Ursula Le Guin’s novel The Lathe of Heaven the main character has dreams that change reality although he does not want to do this. The changes become more and more radical, and at one point mysterious aliens become part of Earth’s reality. The aliens turn out to be mostly nice, however. Several times in their encounters with human beings they remark on the evidently accidental nature of existence and refer to it as “crossings in mist.”

This evocative phrase reminded me of a similar sentiment in Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse-Five. In this semi-autobiographical novel the narrator’s best friend gets a Christmas card from a taxi driver they both met in Berlin hoping that they will meet again “if the accident will.”

Is it all random or do we determine our fate. Is somebody pulling the strings or is it just crossings in the mist. If it is, let the mist at least be beautiful. I tried to paint beautiful mist.