Fate vs Free Will

I just finished reading interesting book titled the Time Traveler’s Wife, in this story a woman is married to a man who time travels without control of when or where he is going. Besides some of the comical nature as well as tearful parts of the story it does raise some interesting questions, one of which is do we believe in fate. In this story the time traveler believed everything was fate and he was merely an observer on the ride that we call life. He wanted to change things, but yet was unable to. He was also fearful he would not meat the woman of his dreams, but there was no need to worry, as fate would have it when he least expected it.

Moving away from the story this is a topic I would like to explore in more detail. How many of our friends or family wonder if they will ever meet their true love, or even any love? What is the typical response? Fear not, when you least expect it, love will find you. Now this sounds great, but that implies that everything in life really is fate and has already been predetermined. No need to go out on the web seeking the multitudes of sites that proclaim the ease of finding a life partner, or even going to a bar risking the sleazy approaches by the likes of Sly Stan or Greasy Greg. Just live your life and someone will drop into your lap. Can we buy that?

Is that the same with work? Do we really need to stress and fear getting that promotion or next job because it is already determined by fate and we are mere ants that really have no control as to when the rain will come to wash away some dreams or the sun comes out to help our food grow extra juicy. This can be a fairly depressing thought when considering how much time, money and effort we spend tying to improve ourselves for purposes other than ourselves. Now before your hand spasms to the mouse so you click on the comment section and lecture me that you should only be doing things for yourself, we all know that is a farce. We all send those few emails specifically to catch our elder’s mind, or say a few things to bring peace of mind to a family member, or even pass on a favorite food to watch our figure. But wait isn’t that free will? The fact that I didn’t have a second helping of gelato, that was my choice. So if it is my free will as to how I look and how I act, can there also be a certain amount of fate binding our actions to the end of larger results in the future?

If this seems confusing, well you aren’t alone, however really think about it, in relation to your past history. Have you ever found you were just at the right place at the right time? That something or someone just seemed to fall in your lap? How about your best friend from high school? Was he or she a neighbor, or maybe just happen to sit next to you in first period algebra. You happened to overhear a VP talk about an concern that you have a solution to while standing in the line at the corporate cafeteria which leads to a promotion or raise. Can this be explained as luck? Is luck just another way of saying fate?

Next time you think to yourself that something was lucky, maybe you should modify that to say that was a nice piece of fate. Sleep on that.