My Views on Fate!

Fate means very little to me. I believe that people control their own destinies and that there are no real unexplainable coincidences. The reason I see life in this light is because I fear how I would act were I to believe in fate. I would wind up accepting that my life is not in my control and not try to change it. I would see every good thing as something that was supposed to happen, not as a product of human kindness or mere coincidence. I also would stop asking the question “why?” To do so would seem to undermine the its whole concept.

Sometimes it is very hard for me to live in a world without fate because occasionally events occur that are very hard or even impossible to explain. Such an event happened a few months ago when I got into a car accident on 250. The car behind me hit my old Cutlass Ciera after the car in front of us had stopped to let a dog pass. My car seemed to spin a little bit and put me into the other lane of traffic where an oncoming car could have easily and catastrophically injured me. Fortunately, there was no car coming in the other lane, and thus, I walked away from the crash with no scratches whatsoever (although my neck was sore the next day). Afterwards I was forced to ask myself why I did not get killed or hurt when I easily could have. Many of my mom's friends gave the deities and fate the credit for my safe escape. I, however, could not accept this reason because I did not believe in a predetermined plan or a guardian angel looking out for me. Instead I had to accept that I got through the accident safely for no reason at all other than due to coincidence. Had a stop sign, red light, phone call, or even a stop to a fast-food restaurant not affected the drivers of the other lane, they could have run straight into me. Likewise, had the owner of a certain dog not let his pet out or had we not left Crozet at our particular time, the accident could have been avoided all together.

Overall, it seems disappointing to think that I escaped pain for no reason at all. Nonetheless, I am forced to accept it because fate is not one of my beliefs. But if I am right, that there is no plan for us, then life truly is delicate. For it would seem reasonable to conclude that life itself is just a coincidence and that living it just involves making the right choices at the right times; one wrong move could easily spell death.