Weird story I heard a while ago...

[Katphood]

A friend of my father told him this story about how he lost his son, and this weird encounter he had with some old geerman woman afterwards. See, his son was ice skating with his friends on a river in Berlin when the thin ice suddenly broke beneath his feet. A brave german citizen managed to save two of the three children but his son happened to be the unlucky one. Their whole family got depressed since they had lost their only son. 

 

A few days after this incident, the mother of the child asks her husband to bring her to the place where their son was drowned. When they finally get there, the motheer stands near the river and starts crying. Suddenly they are greeted by this german women who happens to be in her sixties or something. The german woman asks them if they are the parents of the child who got drowned in the river a few days ago. The german woman had apparently seen the incident. After she finds out that that they are the parents of the drowned kid, The german woman then tells the a very interesting story of her own. The following part is what she had told them:

 

"Many years ago, I was married and had two sons. We were a very happy family. But one day my husband was suddenly diagnosed with a very rare illness. I did everything I could to help him. we went to the US but the doctors there couldn't help either. My husband died two years later. But a year after that, my older son was also diagnosed with the same illness. Again I tried eveything I could to keep my son alive but to no avail. I had lost my husband and my oldest son. And while I was still trying to deal with this matter, my younger son was also diagnosed with the same illness!!!

 

This time I decided to simply pray and do nothing else, I prayed to god every minute of every hour I wasn't attending my son. I prayed until -by some miracle- my son was cured. I couldn't be more happy. I wanted my younger son to be alive no matter what. Eventually my younger son grew into a healthy man, he finished school, university and eventually got a job at some buro/office. But suddenly, a day came when my son had a discussion with his co-workers at the office which led to a fight...what happned after that, is that my son grabbed a handgun and killed three of his co-workers. He will be staying in prison for the rest of his life...sometimes I wish I had simply accepted what fate was trying to offer me."

 

 

The End 

 

 

So do you also view this story the way the german woman does? Do you think that some paths in life are pre-determined? Because in the end, accidents can always happen.

 

What'll it be? Fate or No Fate?

Edited May 10, 2013 by Astiaks

[Walsingham]

I don't believe in Fate as something written, but I do believe in the complexity of events and interactions. To call the dance of events and their outcomes Fate is - to me - just a way of acknowledging the interplay in a manageable way.

 

I do, however, believe in being the master of one's own Fate. To surrender to Fate, or prejudicial factors or what have you, that is to abandon any claim to sentience or morality.

 

On the other hand I do believe that when bad **** happens for no apparent reason then it's good sometimes to just accept it as beyond your control.

[Hurlshort]

Geez, if that woman goes around telling terrible stories like that to grieving parents, I can see why her son was crazy.

[Raithe]

If we're going to wander into these areas, I'll just drop one of my favourite quotes:

 

"You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn't it be so much worse if life *were* fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe."

 

There are always things about your life that you can't control, some people find it happier to say "that's fate", some take comfort in that idea.

But by the same token, there are a lot of areas that you can control but a lot of people don't. As the old chinese proverb goes, "if you never change your direction, you'll likely end up where you're heading."