6.24.2008

Fate Accompli

"It was Fate."

"As Fate would have it. . ."

Do you ever say things like that? What is fate? Does it affect your life? How?
It has always struck me that Fate is inanimate, so to speak. To me, it was Nothing, to which we attributed control over our mulitple, combined actions. Fate has no power. . . or does it?

The understood definition these days "the will or principle or determining cause by which things in general are believed to come to be as they are or events to happen as they do." Where did this idea come from? In Greek and Roman mythology, the Fates are any of three goddesses who determined human destinies, and in particular the span of a person's life and his allotment of misery and suffering. But it was Homer who referred to Fate as an impersonal power.

"Impersonal power." Is this your god? Does this god play with us, our loved ones, our future spouses, our very future? Is Fate our fait accompli?

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