wordsimageslife
an exploration of life as a parent & designer

Tempting Fate

It's not often I find myself at a loss of prose but the past few days, things have occurred that have changed my view on many things and I have found myself closely examining the simple concept of fate.

Fate. Fate is what drives much of the relationships in our life. The dictionary defines fate as follows:
.
1. a. The supposed force, principle, or power that predetermines events.
b. The inevitable events predestined by this force.
2. A final result or consequence; an outcome.
3. Unfavorable destiny; doom.
4. Fates Greek & Roman Mythology. The three goddesses, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, who control human destiny. Used with the.

Where do I go from here? It may be a bit late, or me a bit tired to actually make sense of this course of thought. Is it fate that those soldiers were to sadistily, blatantly and wantonly abuse their Iraqui captives. I mean they were National Guardsmen for goodness sake, what put them in charge of that prison? What moral upbringing led them to treat fellow human beings like that? I have friends who have committed to moving out of the country if Bush is re-elected? What is their fate? Guess we'll know in November. And honestly, this is the first time in my life that I can actually remember being embarrassed about being an American. And this is not to say I don't support the troops fighting in Iraq, but what we have done there is indefensible in any theatre of war. War is ugly and I'm sure there have been unspoken horrors committed on all sides throughout history. But these guys, and girls, took pictures as if it was some sort of joke. We've all seen them. If you are anything but shocked you need your head examined. And if you have difficulty understanding that, turn it around. Imagine the outrage here if those were Iraqui soldiers doing those things to American soldiers. In either case, one could say it's a cruel twist of fate.

I really think I started to think about fate when Isabella, in trying to answer the question of why people die, came up with the amazing conclusion that "G-d needed them to do a job." Much better than my, "I don't really know the answer honey." But we've all heard it before, "your time will come up." It's like we expect our death to be a scheduled occurrence And was it fate that my father would not only die on his birthday, a blessing in Judaism, but also on the holiday considered the happiest of the year. (another blessing). Or do we think that all of these things are actually random and nothing happens for a reason?

And certainly we could extend this whole fate or not fate thing to a more personal level. Is it fate that brings lovers together? Are our life partners predetermined, and if so, why do so many marriages now end in divorce. I mean if we were all fated to be with our partners, you'd think fate would make them last forever. And how do explain a seemingly random connection that becomes a spectacular friendship? Good reason would say fate but would a more reasonable mind question the whole thing or just try not to explain it? Honestly, I don't believe in that only one person in the world theory of 'true love'. I think most of us have been enough relationships that could have but didn't seem fated for permanency. Does this make them more random or does fate truly control our destiny? Certainly we have control over some things, we must, for this is how we make the decisions on how to deal with what fate has dealt us.

Okay, it's late and I still have to make sandwiches for Izzy's school picnic tomorrow. May fate bring you this way again where only fate, and maybe me, will know what I write about next.

Posted by robdesign at May 7, 2004 01:18 AM