The Chicken Or The Egg?

      The eternal yet unanswerable question...which came first...the chicken? The egg? A chicken is hatched out of an egg...but wouldn't a chicken have to have laid the egg that the chicken was hatched out of? The other day my Speech teacher said that he believes that a chicken-like dinosaur (which apparently does exist) laid their egg, and it had a slight mutation and thus the chicken was born, meaning the egg came first. I am currently reading the book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and at the Ravenclaw door, Harry and Luna are asked which came first, the chicken or the egg? (actually it asks if the phoenix or the flame came first...but same principle) And Luna responds: "I think the answer is that a circle has no beginning" There are millions of different reasonings one can go through to answer this unanswerable question, but the definitive answer will always be the same...there just is no answer.
       I've been wondering the same thing about songs, books, and movies. It's not exactly the same principle, but go with me. Throughout my lifetime, I've heard songs that sound like they were written after a certain book or movie...then again, the book or movie could have been written because of the song. Yes, of course one can look at the dates of publication and definitively figure out which one came first...but I just think it's more fun to leave that to the imagination.
       My biggest example of this is something my sister originally pointed out to me. This was during my obsessive Twilight phase (yes...I went through a Twilight phase...don't judge) that she pointed out the striking similarities between the book Twilight and the song Umbrella, originally by Rihanna. At first I didn't believe her, but then I listened closely to the lyrics, and it was uncanny all of the specific similarities. There were just too many for it to be a coincidence. "Because when the sun shines, we'll shine together", "baby 'cause in the dark, you can't see shiny cars, and that's when you'll need me there". Anyone who's read Twilight should know exactly what I'm talking about. And those are just a couple of the dozens of examples throughout the song.
       Then yesterday and today I started listening to one of my favorite songs of all time that I kind of forgot about like crazy. Travelin' Soldier by the Dixie Chicks (fantastic, amazing song if you haven't heard it...I am not a country fan and I love it), has striking similarities to the book Dear John by Nicolas Sparks. While I believe that these similarities are purely coincidental unlike my thoughts on my previous example, there are several instances of likeness. A shy guy about to go to war falls in love with a really outgoing girl. They write back and forth constantly. They met/fell in love on a pier. There's nothing in the song about a little brother with asperger's disease...but we can overlook that.
      Pay attention next time you're mindlessly listening to music. You'll be amazed at the uncanny similarities you can find between your favorite song and your favorite book and/or movie. And once you find these similarities, you will never stop seeing them the more you think about it. I prefer not to look up which came first, the song or the book. I prefer to let my mind battle that one out. I imagine Nicolas Sparks hearing the magic of how the Dixie Chicks crammed a beautiful love story into a five minute song, he was inspired, and sat down at his laptop and began what was to become Dear John. Jay-Z was sitting at home crying his eyes out when Bella was captured by the evil vampires and was inspired by her and Edward's forbidden love and wrote Umbrella. But hey, put your imagination to work...which came first...the chicken or the egg?