Fate, divine justice, karma, whichever higher power you prefer, the idea of unknown forces dictating our lives walks that fine line between terrifying and fascinating. No one really understands fate, but there are those who live and die by the idea of it.
And counterarguments against fate only make it that much broader of a concept. Instead of speculating why it exists, reducing the concept to a definition we know makes a better article. For simplicity’s sake let's just call fate a word that symbolizes the idea that everything happens for a reason.
Now that there’s solid ground, we can explore the concept further. The way I see it fate can be one of two things, first, let's liken it to an economic concept known as the invisible hand. The idea is that an “invisible” force with too many details to calculate will always push an economic market back to equilibrium. Going off of this comparison, we would say that fate does have some sort of input that causes it to dictate the direction of our lives, all in order to push some sort of human-wide market into equilibrium. The other possibility, going off the assumption that fate is real, is that fate has no invisible force behind it and simply happens because it does, almost like it controls our lives based on randomness. Unlike the hypothetical logic behind the first possibility, perhaps fate acts in such a way that no human concept can justify it, it simply does what it does. This idea is certainly headache inducing and leads to the whole fine line thing mentioned prior.
Regardless of whether fate is comprehensible, we all have to respect it, since everyone has had some sort of inexplicable coincidence in their lives that can only be chalked up to fate. Times when a certain someone happened to enter our lives at the perfect moment, when the stars align so you have just enough time to make a flight, or during our worst moments, we happen to find something that makes us happy again.
Looking at it this way makes likening fate to the invisible hand fairly plausible. What if each of us has a part to play and through fate, we can reach an equilibrium needed for whatever that “thing” is to happen?
Looking at life through this lens can get rid of a lot of daily stress, but at the same time looking at life like everything has a reason can also entrap you. Where I am now, at my specific university still feels like it was fated to me. Early high school me was pretty isolated socially, but one night, I just so happened to go out to dinner with my father, and a family friend just so happened to come along. This friend then proceeded to bring up the gym and ask if I wanted to come with him over the summer, and of course, I agreed. I gained a massive amount of confidence from those three months and changed my mental state completely: going from a kid who never wanted to move out of the house he grew up in, to a slightly more mature kid who wanted to explore himself and the world.
Leading me to go away to college two years later. Had I never gone to dinner that night, or had that friend not come along, I feel like I would still be the scared kid I used to be. And through all that, I can’t help but think that it had to be fated; and that’s just one example of many.
A professor of mine puts the concept better than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s in moments of reflection when sometimes you just have to look up and say, “do you think this is funny?”, and to be honest, it is funny. The idea that where all of us are now was shaped by the smallest details in the past, and how all of those tiny details led to our present moment is unbelievable. And whether you believe in a higher power like fate, it truly makes life seem that much more special.
Fate sounds much like Faith.
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