On Fate

A couple of days ago the question of fate came up, several times, from several different people.  Perhaps those interactions fated the writing of this post. Perhaps they did not.

What is Fate?  That question is not one that any thinking person should dismiss without due consideration. Why not?  Because Fate is far far more complex than just something we either think exists, or we simply dismiss.

If you don’t believe in fate, then you should.

If you do believe in Fate, then you shouldn’t.

Contrary statements?  Only when considered superficially. You see Fate truly is something so compelling it warrants our careful consideration. So, in hope of starting you along a path less tread, I have modified part of one conversation that occurred on twitter. The conversation began with a poem of a fateful nature by Nandita Das. My original Tweet, in reply to Nandita’s poem, appears below.

@nanditadaniel Fate… what is fate, if we have free will? what is free will, if our destiny is fated? Yet fate, just feels right.

— C.G.Ayling (@CGAyling) April 3, 2015

Fate… what is fate, if we have free will? what is free will, if our destiny is fated? Yet fate, just feels right.

Twitter forces the compaction of thoughts. Sometimes this compaction is good, in how it focuses the essence of a thought, but others it isn’t as it removes essential elements. My full thought appears below.

~ Fate… ~
What is fate, if we have free will?
What is free will, if our destiny is fated?
While Fate seems that it must be
Wrong,
Fate, once experienced,
just feels
Right.
~

And below is another poem on Fate, composed in another completely separate conversation that occurred about the same time.

~ Fate ~
Let us not tempt the Fates
by presuming to understand them.
If the fates have desires,
then to them we will succumb.
If the fates have goals,
then we are but their ball.
If the fates have wings,
then perhaps they’ll let us fly.
Yet if there is a question that
to the Fates we may not cry,
it is a single word,
one word
from which they’re warded.
It is the question,
Why?
~

Perhaps the root thing about the fate, or its lack, is this…

Even if the Fates are not, then what will happen, still will.

Something I find particularly fascinating about the Fates, is that even the Gods cannot escape their dictates, and if the Gods can’t then what hope have we?  We like to think we’re masters of our own destiny, so much so that we’re unwilling to think about the possibility we are not. That is why, especially if we don’t believe in fate, we should still consider it.  It is also the reason, if we do believe in Fate, that we should rethink it, even if only in hope of finding a path ahead we have not yet seen.

What do I believe about the Fates?  Well, there are a few clues within this post, and many more sprinkled throughout this blog. One of these clues is that within the question opening this paragraph I capitalized the word.  Could that be an example of Decorum, a concept used throughout Malmaxa?