The Threads of Fate
When I was pretty young, just a wee lad, one of my favourite authors was a guy called Piers Anthony. His writing is of the fantasy genre, but what truly appealed to me was that while he wrote fantasy as his choice of genre, he wrote books and series for all ages. For the children he had the World of Xanth series, for the teens he had the Adept series, and for the adults, he had the Incarnations series. And they were all huge series; all were standalone novels in their own right, but when put together, the tapestry of intertwined fates and the interdependence of the characters he wove became obvious. In fact, this beautifully understated intertwining of the destinies of his characters were giving overt life in one of his books of his Incarnations series where he wrote about the three ladies of fate: Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos. The first forms the threads of Fate, the second weaves the threads of Fate and the third cuts them.
Why am I writing all this? While I would love to wax lyrical about Piers Anthony all day and all night, it really would not be the purpose I am writing this little piece. Rather, I just want to ruminate a little more about fate.
I'm not really a firm believer in fate as in destiny. To me, destiny is what you make of your life in the long term. Whether you are going to be a happy small fry in a big pond, or the most unhappily powerful man on earth, it will be largely your own doing. How you can rise up above (or sink below) the mediocrity of average life is completely up to the choices you make in life. That, however, is in the context of a human's lifespan, which of course is usually measured in decades.
What has recently caught my interest though is the intertwining of the fates of various individuals. I was travelling home after day shift yesterday evening when I was caught in a massive traffic jam. The cause for the jam was only apparent after half an hour of gridlock where my car seldom if ever went above second gear. A car had collided with another in the middle of the road. As I passed the scene of the accident, I found myself thanking my lucky stars that I was not rushing for an appointment. I probably would not have been so patient nor so forgiving. But just for that half an hour, in the greater scheme of things, the lives of the two drivers involved in the accident were intertwined with mine. What they had experienced had an impact on my life. And I did not really have control over what happened. But was there an impact on my life, no matter how momentary? Definitely.
Imagine your life as a thread stretching through time. A thread that will only end when your time on this earth has ended. If you can stand aside and see your own thread, you would also notice billions upon billions of other threads stretching into the horizon. Those are the threads of others around you. As we go through life, some of those other threads may touch your thread but briefly. Others may intertwine with yours for a time before going off on their own. Yet others will be intertwined with yours, to leave briefly and yet twine back with you at long regular intervals. Are any of those threads more important than the rest? Yes and no.
Yes, because for those threads which twine regularly with yours over time, they are the ones that can enrich your own thread without limit. Through those threads you learn life, love and living. For those threads that touch you but briefly, their impact on your life may be so small as to be insignificant in the greater scheme of things. But no, because lest you think that this gives you the excuse to ignore or to be brusque towards those fleeting encounters, just think of this: I have never met the Pope, nor any President of the United States, nor even the President of Singapore for that matter. But their threads are threads that throw off little wisps that can touch my life immeasurably.
In your own way too, your threads may throw off wisps that may come into contact with threads you may never have the blessing to meet. Nonetheless just remember this: every thread matters, no matter how fleeting the contact, no matter how ephemeral the wisp. Who knows? One day that thread may be one that intertwined with yours in ways you cannot even imagine...
PS. This article is dedicated to a brand new friend, Brenda, who is now studying in Sydney University. She wrote to me after stumbling onto this blog. Just another little example of how a thread can be touched by a wisp...
Why am I writing all this? While I would love to wax lyrical about Piers Anthony all day and all night, it really would not be the purpose I am writing this little piece. Rather, I just want to ruminate a little more about fate.
I'm not really a firm believer in fate as in destiny. To me, destiny is what you make of your life in the long term. Whether you are going to be a happy small fry in a big pond, or the most unhappily powerful man on earth, it will be largely your own doing. How you can rise up above (or sink below) the mediocrity of average life is completely up to the choices you make in life. That, however, is in the context of a human's lifespan, which of course is usually measured in decades.
What has recently caught my interest though is the intertwining of the fates of various individuals. I was travelling home after day shift yesterday evening when I was caught in a massive traffic jam. The cause for the jam was only apparent after half an hour of gridlock where my car seldom if ever went above second gear. A car had collided with another in the middle of the road. As I passed the scene of the accident, I found myself thanking my lucky stars that I was not rushing for an appointment. I probably would not have been so patient nor so forgiving. But just for that half an hour, in the greater scheme of things, the lives of the two drivers involved in the accident were intertwined with mine. What they had experienced had an impact on my life. And I did not really have control over what happened. But was there an impact on my life, no matter how momentary? Definitely.
Imagine your life as a thread stretching through time. A thread that will only end when your time on this earth has ended. If you can stand aside and see your own thread, you would also notice billions upon billions of other threads stretching into the horizon. Those are the threads of others around you. As we go through life, some of those other threads may touch your thread but briefly. Others may intertwine with yours for a time before going off on their own. Yet others will be intertwined with yours, to leave briefly and yet twine back with you at long regular intervals. Are any of those threads more important than the rest? Yes and no.
Yes, because for those threads which twine regularly with yours over time, they are the ones that can enrich your own thread without limit. Through those threads you learn life, love and living. For those threads that touch you but briefly, their impact on your life may be so small as to be insignificant in the greater scheme of things. But no, because lest you think that this gives you the excuse to ignore or to be brusque towards those fleeting encounters, just think of this: I have never met the Pope, nor any President of the United States, nor even the President of Singapore for that matter. But their threads are threads that throw off little wisps that can touch my life immeasurably.
In your own way too, your threads may throw off wisps that may come into contact with threads you may never have the blessing to meet. Nonetheless just remember this: every thread matters, no matter how fleeting the contact, no matter how ephemeral the wisp. Who knows? One day that thread may be one that intertwined with yours in ways you cannot even imagine...
PS. This article is dedicated to a brand new friend, Brenda, who is now studying in Sydney University. She wrote to me after stumbling onto this blog. Just another little example of how a thread can be touched by a wisp...
posted by ekkie at 3:51 am
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