Chaos Theory

Today I learned that life consists mostly of a largely random set of coincidences, and to ascribe any real emotional significance to could-have-beens or predicted outcomes when, in fact, the end result of any one decision is nearly impossible to predict is kind of silly.
For example: today at about noon we were wandering down the Li river waterfront in Guilin contemplating getting to Yangshuo. Suddenly, some Chinese women accosted us wanting to know if we're interested in a boat ride to Yangshuo for only 400 yuan. We declined, finding 400 to be pretty pricey. A few minutes later, we ran into another Chinese lady who wanted to sell us a 400 RMB boat ride. We asked for 300, and she got a sort of concerned look on her face. She called someone on her cell phone and said she couldn't go any lower than 360. We asked for 320 and she acquiesed. So apparently 320 RMB doesn't get you the whole way from Guilin to Yangshuo. So she put us on a little boat that brought us across the river to where the long-distance buses sit around waiting for business. Getting off the boat, I dunked my foot in the river and got laughed at by some kids a few meters away. No matter. Soldiering on, we reached the bus that was to take us... somewhere. As soon as we three (myself, Christine, and our random Chinese lady) got on, a few other people piled in without explanation. That's cool, we thought, they're probably not here to provide extra manpower for beating us and taking our cash. After driving for a while, we reached some random town where we were told to get out. Alright, cool so far, I hope we don't get raped. So after waiting for a while and conversing with our guide, another bus showed up and we piled on. This one, unlike the other Chinese buses we'd been on so far was stuffed full not only with people, but also a variety of agricultural products. So we rode that one for quite a while across dusty roads between rice paddies, musk oxen, corn plots, and fish ponds until we arrived at this outrageous traffic jam, a freaking forest of tour buses all spilling out Chinese people. Apparently this particular spot in Guangxi had been named a 'AAAA' scenic site by some committee of some kind or another. So we sat around in our bus for a while playing with a stranger's baby next to us, while the denizens of the bus grew gradually more and more flustered. We didn't, cause as we realized yesterday, even spending six hours waiting for bus is a blast cause we're doing it in China. We did get a bit worried when our guide left the bus for about 20 minutes with no explanation, causing us to speculate that perhaps this is the part where we get robbed and left for dead. But no, just as the knot of buses began to move and we really started to panic, there was our guide again, still without explanation. After leaving the AAAA tourist site, we continued onward to our first port of call, a sleepy fishing village with some fantastic classic Chinese architecture and magnificent views of the Li River's trademark mountains. There our guide put us on a flimsy-looking steel-hulled boat with some other guy and his bowl of rice at the helm. It was here that she finally asked for her money, and I was sort of saddened to find out that she wasn't coming with us anymore after the three-odd hours we had spent with her (ni gen women bu lai ma? keshi wo xihuan ni...). So we paid, said our goodbyes, and off we went. The driver was a fun one and went at some pretty impressive speeds, especially over the wakes of the much larger boats on the river, and let us sit on the prow of the boat for most of the ride. So as we headed down the river, what did we run into but another boat of the same make with (gasp!) a white person on it! This was the first white person we'd seen in quite a while, and probably the same for him, so we waved at and took pictures of each other and the boats stayed pretty close for the duration of the trip. After a pleasant hour or so on the river, it was time to get off, and our driver deposited us on some random rocky shore where he claimed we could find a bus. He drove off, leaving us a little lost, given that there was nothing nearby, when, out of nowhere, appeared our white guy, who happened to land in the same place at the same time! Turns out he and his Chinese wife are visiting from their home in Germany with the wife's sister and children. So seeing as we had interacted from afar earlier, and three of the four languages Christine and I have between us are understood by the group, they invited us to hop onto their motor-taxi type thing (a rickety contraption that the driver barrels over the pockmarked and narrow roads [I swear he was aiming for the potholes] with one hand on the wheel, one on the gear shift, and god knows what on his cell phone, which he was talking into the whole time) and go to... wherever it was they were going with them. So we accepted, seeing no other viable alternatives, and when we got off, much to the relief of my blood pressure, discovered that we were still not, in fact in Yangshuo. After discussing with Christine the fact that we had no idea where on God's green earth we were, our awesome German-Chinese family overheard and offered us a ride to Yangshuo in their chartered van. Hot. So eventually, over chatting with the family and eating boiled sweet potatoes and yutou, we reached Yangshruo, where quite a conniption erupted over how exactly to find Zhuoyue (the english college we're supposed to be teaching at). Christine and I being loathe to accept charity and having accepted an outrageous amount of it so far (plus some taro root), tried to protest, but continuing the oh-my-god-I'm-going-to-die theme of the day, the family plopped us onto a pair of motorcycle taxis who claimed to know the way, and off we went to the Xilun English School! We consulted our information once more when we got there, and finally got to the real Zhuoyue, who have graciously offered us free internet while we wait for Gary to show up to let us know if we also get a place to stay.
Now, the point of that story is to find how many places in my day in which a very slight change of circumstances could have led to a completely different and largely unpredictable set of results. Do I feel particularly attached to the sequence of events that transpired today? Not really, beyond their ability to be a pretty good story (though I think most anything that might have happened would have been a pretty good story, especially if we had really gotten lost), because while the end result of today was indeed what I planned it to be, the specific methods of doing so were so completely out of my hands that I can't possibly claim credit for having any sort of foresight in the situation. Do I worry about what might have happened? Also no, what's done is done, and we've got to work with the situation at hand rather than extrapolate too far into the future because, to put it in the terms of chaos theory, the equation diverges so wildly that to put any meaning to a prediction of a possible outcome is meaningless. So, try not to dwell on the past because you can't do anything about it, and don't worry too far ahead in the future, because you also effectively can't do anything about it. Take life one step at a time and live in the moment and I think you'll find it becomes a lot more enjoyable.