A malfunctioning auto saved my career from disaster

April, 1978. I was still in graduate school. I had promised the company I had accepted a job with that I would start work on this date. There was only one problem. My doctoral dissertation (in chemistry) was incomplete. I thought, "Oh, well, I'll finish it in the evenings after I start my new job", but secretly I feared that I never would. Still, I had promised, so, with a heavy heart, as the sun went down, I climbed into my MG Midget and headed toward the Pennsylvania Turnpike for my trip West. Now, at this time, I did my own work on my cars, and this car required a lot of work. I knew it backwards and forwards. Still, just a few miles out of town, It started banging on only one cylinder. I spent some time with it, trying this and that, trying to figure out what the problem might be. I could not. With an even heavier heart (and fear of a broken promise), I hobbled to a closed mechanic's garage, left the car with a note, and called a friend to pick me up. In the morning, as I prepared to call Mike, my boss-to-be, to tell him I wouldn't be showing up that day, I had a thought. The thought was: "If a little thing like an engine malfunction can cause me to miss my start date, shouldn't a much more important thing, like finishing my dissertation, cause me to delay it -- even at the risk of having the job offer retracted?" I called Mike, and explained. I said I understood they had made a promise and so had I, but that I felt I had to stay until my dissertation was complete. He first wanted to make sure I really still wanted the job. I did. He said it would be waiting for me until I finished. It was October, following six months of eighty-hour weeks, before I was able to finish. I don't think I would ever have done so had I started in April, and I do believe I would have started in April had the car not broken down. This coincidence was the closest this atheist has ever come to the feeling that there's someone up there watching out for me.