a friend of mine – brilliant girl in the classroom but a bit naive (and a tad slow) about real life matters – said something that got me thinking. on an ex-boyfriend, she would offer no justification or insights on what went wrong other than, “everything happens for a reason” and  “God puts us where he wants us to be.” then she starts throwing around buzzwords like “destiny” and “meant to be” etc. i had to speak up at that point. “what a cop-out,” i said. “by your logic, we as humans should do nothing other than wait for God to ‘put us’ where we’re ‘meant to be.’ ” she’s a good kid (if 20 years old can pass as a “kid” anymore) but sometimes her innocent mentality can get the better of her.

i’ve been thinking about choice and purpose and “fate,” if such a thing exists, at length lately. right now i’ve arrived at some kind of theory that somewhat balances my realistic approach towards existence with my incessant desire to believe in something beyond this realm of existence. here’s what i’ve come up with:

as far as fate and destiny and horoscopes etc. are concerned, i don’t buy it. movie quotes are slowing starting to dominate much of my life’s philosophy, so if i may borrow one from keanu: “i don’t like the idea that i’m not in control of my own life.” weak example: if you told me that i’m destined to  be an astronaut, then there’s no point in going to truck driving school like i always wanted to. the concept of choice becomes moot, and there’s really no point in working towards anything other than being an astronaut.

but anyone with half a brain has probably already figure that out, so i’m really just telling you what you already know.

human “destiny” would imply that there’s some supreme deity behind the scenes making sure it all goes according to the divine plans allegedly set out for all of us: “the manipulator controlling his marionettes in accordance with a pre-conceived script”  is my favorite metaphor, because i believe that it has almost complete parity.

thanks to that near-perfect imagery, i’m able to realize that i just don’t believe that whatever deity you surrender to at the end of the day (in my case, “God”) would do that. it doesn’t make sense, for a number of reasons. i’ll admit that i believe in an omniscient/omnipotent God responsible for creation, etc. but as far as the creator’s role in the lives of its people, i abandon the marionette imagery. in favor if what, you ask? bowling.

God sets ‘em up. i knock ‘em down. i’ve had a lot of things happen to me that have convinced me that some greater power is seeing to it that i have the opportunities to live a morally sound and spiritually fulfilling life. but once those opportunities are set in place, it is out of God’s hands – i need to make the final call. my “destiny,” if you will, is nothing more that what i do with the opportunities laid before me. the means may have something to do with God, but the end is ultimately up to me.

i’ve got more on this, like how God knows what choices i will make but the choice is still my own, yadda yadda yadda. but that makes about as much sense as the rest of this post (which is next to none) so i’ll sit on that and give it a go some other time.