We often feel that strange sensation where chance, the unexpected, is marking our way, forcing us to direct life in one direction or another. Some say that what guides our life is destiny. Destiny is a force that is above us and that pushes us towards an inevitable succession of events, of circumstances from which we cannot escape.
Something like this goes far beyond a simple synchronicity, it means coming to think that nothing happens by chance, but that we are determined. What does it mean for people to think something like that? Are we then at the mercy of fate, or are we nevertheless free to choose our own path?
“Whatever heaven has ordained to happen, there is no diligence or human wisdom that can prevent it.”
-Miguel de Cervantes-
Chance or causality?
It is true that sometimes things happen that surprise us: meeting someone in a certain place under curious circumstances, that luck that one day appears unexpectedly, that choice that we make without really knowing why … Is it chance? Or is it perhaps due to a mysterious causality?
Man meets woman
It is true that it is highly recommended to have an open mind, in a way of thinking in which we do not put bolts or obstacles in the face of all the information and stimuli that surround us and they come to us without rest.
But the question centers on that if we accept the existence of destiny, we assume that part of what happens to us is marked by the designs of who knows what. It is something that completely escapes our understanding and maybe even our own consciousness. So where are the threads of our responsibility? How can we be responsible for something we don’t even control?
Fate, free will, and the inexplicable
There are scientists who affirm the existence of an “almost forced destiny“, and it is relative to heredity: the genetics of our parents sometimes determine us in many aspects, sometimes in character and other times in physical traits, in diseases … The context social and personal in which we are educated can also affect us with at least a 30 or 40% probability.
But on the other hand, we also have the indispensable conception of “free will”, where each one is conditioned by their own choices. He is so because of his own personal history and also because of his life in a society that allows him to lean down a certain path or another, recognizing his mistakes, trusting himself and taking on new challenges.
Man choosing his destiny
And it is that, as an old Italian writer once said, “Fate does not reign without the secret complicity of instinct and will.” Because one’s life is not woven in the stars, but in our own reality and on a day-to-day basis, which puts tests and challenges on us to prove ourselves as people.
We are free to set our own goals and achieve our own achievements, but chance exists. And sometimes the coincidences are so unique that we cannot avoid giving them that halo of inexplicable magic. Because people, no matter how rational we are, have always liked that singular brushstroke where we contain everything strange and inexplicable…
“Fate is the one who shuffles the cards, but we are the ones who play.”
-William Shakespeare-
It is true that our lives are sometimes a chaos of coincidences and illogical events, but taking control of our own destiny should always be our aspiration.
