Monday, January 10, 2005

I Choose My Destiny......

...or does destiny make my choices? I speculated once on whether Fate or free choice were what decided the course of our lives. I never was sure. But the more I see, the more it strikes me that perhaps choice as we define it, does not really exist. It's just a myth that makes us feel good.

I am not a believer in Fate to the extent of saying "whatever will be, will be"; I believe that one's efforts definitely are what shape the outcome, but that said, the outcomes of most of our actions seem to follow a pattern, a predetermined pattern. After all, when have we ever really been able to make a choice?

Every time I analyze any situation where I made a "choice", I realize just how optionless I actually was. The constraints make our choice for us. Whether it is our way of thinking, the circumstances, or of course, as happens so often, "gut feel". So, what does all this add up to? Simple, you never really made a real choice. You were shown a number of alternatives and simultaneously, told which one you had to take. Choice? No choice.

And there are so many times you can see it happening each day. Your mind may tell you that you shouldn't do something. Yet you end up doing it. What was that? Choice?

But can we really afford to let go of "choice" as a belief? Not really. It's something like God. It may or may not exist, yet when you're not strong enough to handle the truth (Reminds me of the dialogue..."You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!" ;-) ) , choice, like God, seems like a good support system.

3 comments:

Enchantica said...

Hi

just saw your blog link somewhere. Came to see your posts. I dont know...but i cud not stop myself and read almost all the articles. U know what, all your articles say a lot abt u.

While reading somehow i compared u with a my fiction hero "Howard Roark" of " The Fountain Head".

Life is really beautiful. Try to see that part.

Cheers!!!
Shipra

Enchantica said...

Hi

just saw your blog link somewhere. Came to see your posts. I dont know...but i cud not stop myself and read almost all the articles. U know what, all your articles say a lot abt u.

While reading somehow i compared u with a my fiction hero "Howard Roark" of " The Fountain Head".

Life is really beautiful. Try to see that part.

Cheers!!!
Shipra

Anonymous said...

Just happen to read your blog...happen to realise that i am not the only one who think a lot abt these things...anyway...re destiny thing...here is some words from Herbet Simon Autobiography "Model of my Life"

"I have encountered many branches in the maze of life's path, where I have followed now the left fork, now the right. . . .In describing my life as maze like, I do not mean that I have a large number of deliberate, wrenching decisions to go off in one direction or another. On the contrary, I have made very few. Obvious responses to opportunities and circumstances, rather than studied decisions, have put me on the particular roads I have followed."

- G