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NoSoup · 05-17-2004, 07:06 AM

I would prefer not to believe in fate, as that would take away my "free will." and the ability to make my own decision.

I just find it amazing that the smallest of decisions, decisions that you don't think will affect you 20 minutes from now, have the ability to direct your life in a such a titanic manner, and usually you are unable to determine if a given situation was one of those moments until you look back on it from quite a way in the future.

To think that deciding that I need to take the garbage out could initiate the chain of events that change my life forever is nigh uncomprehendible to me. The most difficult part to accept is I won't know until it is too late if it is for the better or worse.

A similar story to the one I first posted, but this one with negative consequences involves a car accident.

A friend of mine needed a ride to work, so I picked him up & dropped him off downtown. It was really shitty weather, and was very icy out. On the drive back to my house, I inadvertantly passed the turn that I usually would take to get home. Not a real big problem, as there plenty of other routes I could take. Well, to make a long story short, I took a different route, and just as I was heading down the street this lady came flying around a corner, doing 360's, hit the car in front of me, straightened out, hit me head on, spun off, and her rear end then hit my vehicle again.

Imagine, if I had taken my normal route home, or taken any of the other streets, or been stopped at a stoplight, or driven a few miles an hour faster or slower, I would not have been involved in that accident. To look at the greater picture, though, if the lady driving the car hadn't been going to fast, had left her house a moment later, ect, or the people in front of me not been there, the accident may not have happened at all, or at least it would have been completely different.

Had any one of us made a different decision, things most likely wouldn't have turned out the way they did. When I think about the probably hundreds of decisions that had to be made to bring that accident together, I sometimes find it difficult to believe in coincidence...

05-17-2004, 07:06 AM	#6 (permalink)
NoSoup Non-Rookie Location: Green Bay, WI	I would prefer not to believe in fate, as that would take away my "free will." and the ability to make my own decision. I just find it amazing that the smallest of decisions, decisions that you don't think will affect you 20 minutes from now, have the ability to direct your life in a such a titanic manner, and usually you are unable to determine if a given situation was one of those moments until you look back on it from quite a way in the future. To think that deciding that I need to take the garbage out could initiate the chain of events that change my life forever is nigh uncomprehendible to me. The most difficult part to accept is I won't know until it is too late if it is for the better or worse. A similar story to the one I first posted, but this one with negative consequences involves a car accident. A friend of mine needed a ride to work, so I picked him up & dropped him off downtown. It was really shitty weather, and was very icy out. On the drive back to my house, I inadvertantly passed the turn that I usually would take to get home. Not a real big problem, as there plenty of other routes I could take. Well, to make a long story short, I took a different route, and just as I was heading down the street this lady came flying around a corner, doing 360's, hit the car in front of me, straightened out, hit me head on, spun off, and her rear end then hit my vehicle again. Imagine, if I had taken my normal route home, or taken any of the other streets, or been stopped at a stoplight, or driven a few miles an hour faster or slower, I would not have been involved in that accident. To look at the greater picture, though, if the lady driving the car hadn't been going to fast, had left her house a moment later, ect, or the people in front of me not been there, the accident may not have happened at all, or at least it would have been completely different. Had any one of us made a different decision, things most likely wouldn't have turned out the way they did. When I think about the probably hundreds of decisions that had to be made to bring that accident together, I sometimes find it difficult to believe in coincidence...