Confluence, Convergence, Coincidence

When I was in high school, my school's chapter of Students Against Drunk Driving (SADD) would invite a guest speaker to lecture the juniors and seniors about the possible consequences of alcohol impairment during prom and graduation time. The speaker during my tenure in high school was Gene Hart, known as The Voice of the Flyers, because Pelle Lindbergh, the team's star goalie, had recently died in an alcohol-involved crash. Through various situations (either my teacher was the SADD advisor and had to be there, or we couldn't have band practice with so many students in assembly, or because I was a junior or a senior), I heard Mr. Hart speak seven times during my four years of high school. Is it any wonder I can remember the gist of his speech... ahem... years later?

Mr. Hart said there were several conditions that, together, contributed to the crash, but if one of them had been different, it probably wouldn't have happened. (I think there were seven of them.) I noticed a similar situation this weekend, when we had a broken irrigation line the morning that students were moving in to a brand new residence hall.

If the employees had operated the trencher carefully, it might not have happened.
If our overtime hadn't been restricted a month ago, it might have happened a couple of weeks ago.
If the senior VP didn't want us to work during move-in, it might have happened during the week.

However, all three circumstances converged, which meant we were stuck cleaning up a mud pile off the sidewalk and handicap parking spaces as students and their parents toted boxes around us.