fate

Trigger warning: current events

It seems like you were destined to stop by and read this blog post. It's kismet. This blog post drew the iron of your soul in like a magnet ...

Okay, I'll stop. You are reading this blog post because I wrote it and you were kind enough to humor me. Thank you.

I have been thinking about fate a lot lately --predetermination, luck, chance. etc. Whatever you want to call it, I've been thinking about it a lot.

I've been working on a play based on the short story, "The Lady, or The Tiger?" by Frank R. Stockton (click on the title and it'll take you to a free copy --it's a quick read and well worth the effort). 

Although it was written in 1882, it is extremely timely given the current state of affairs in the U.S. In it, a despot has devised a system of justice where the accused determines whether he (all of the accused are men in the story) is guilty or innocent by opening one of two doors: if he opens the door with the tiger behind it, he was guilty and gets eaten; or if he opens the door with the lady behind it, he was innocent and gets married. It is unknown to the accused which door is which, but whichever he chooses, he determines his own fate.

The current geopolitical climate also makes one think long and hard on fate. In my life, I am fortunate to know some Christians who try very hard to be good Christians --my sister, and my friends Melissa and Tela, and some other friends from work. I became aware of a theological approach within Christianity called dispensationalism back in the Reagan era (I was a really strange kid with unusual interests), and it was an anomaly back in the day. It seems that dispensationalism is catching on nowadays, though. I've had many discussions with my sister recently about End Times, for example. The idea that what is happening now was foretold in the Book of Revelation and that the end of the world is coming seems to be more popular now than it has in past years.

Spoiler alert: I have a problem with the idea of fate.

In the case of the short story, the despotic King decided who would be accused and would be forced to make the choice between the tiger or the lady, and it was in his arena. He designed the system, mainly as a way to distract people into compliance but also because he had a bit of an authoritarian sadistic streak. Examined that way, it wasn't fate at all that determined whether those men lived or died --it was the King's choice and the King's system. Maybe the man didn't have much say over it, but fate? Fate means it was inevitable. That system was not inevitable --it was one man's creation, and everyone else just went along with it.

In the case of the Bible, it seems a bit like when you have a hammer, everything's a nail. A man wrote the Book of Revelation --whether you believe it was divinely inspired or not, a man wrote it. Furthermore, it is not written in specifics; it is open to interpretation. Is it now? Is it a thousand years from now? People tend to think in the timelines of their lifespan, so naturally, it must mean now, right? Furthermore furthermore, if you believe in the Bible and believe that is where it all heads and you think this all part of a bigger plan, I don't understand why anyone does anything. It makes no sense. Why be aggressive? Why be defensive? Why do anything? If it's going to happen anyway, surely no one needs to do anything. It sounds to me like a self-fulfilling prophecy, and I know for certain there are people who are exploiting it for their own ends in the here and now. If you are a true believer (and there are people who purport to be who ...I'm not sure about), why not wait and see what the actual plan is? Save yourself the stress. How come only people in positions of power or with money are the ones who are permitted to act and everyone else is supposed to accept what people in positions of power come up with passively? Surely we should all act, or we should all passively accept whatever happens next. What makes them different? Pretty sure they're human, too. To me, it all smacks of man doing what man wants again in a linear-compulsive thinking sort of way with a side of greed and ego and enabling, but what do I know?

Here's what I do know: I'm responsible for my actions. I do not turn that responsibility over to anyone else. Will things happen that are beyond my control? Yup. Daily. Other things will happen that I've set in motion through choices I made at an earlier time. Others are accidents. And there are things that happen that I don't understand because I don't know everything --I'm human. The worst is watching when other people make choices that make our collective experience here on Earth worse rather than better. I can make a choice to tell them to cut it out, but I can't necessarily control what they'll do next.

But fate? Inevitability? Meh.

It is my fate to sign off now. I hope that you are fated to have a great day.