"Fate" exists?!

A wondrous-sounding word can be totally fabulous and nebulous at the same time, like "fate".

Someone called it "magic".

It is kind of "fate" that the topic of "fate" can be brought up for three times within three days. What sparked off this discussion among us? What sent a tingling to our hearts?

It may be clad in the disguise of "chemistry" when fate revs in between lovers or just, close friends. Yet it is more often than not depicted as an obnoxious excuse for one's resignation to his or her failure, when one heaves a sigh:"It's my fate. Nothing to do about it."

May a wondrous-sounding word be more negative than positive to begin with? Or if it is so, is it its "fate"?

People past their prime years tend to believe in fate, after knowing that personal strength and perseverence have so little to do with the general "trend" along which the Earth is spinning. They believe that certain restrictions are unquestionable and unquestioned, that you can do nothing about it so you'd better make yourself scarce. They believe that though you know something is wrong and righteously should be corrected yet no possible forces can push along the change. They believe that there are certain things one can never aspire to, in the face of his or her fate.

These thoughts are bat off like annoying flies by young people. It is pessimistic! It is fatalistic!! Thus it is STUPID!!!

The only difference between the young and the old (apart from the degree of oxidation) is that the young have a brilliant future before them whilst the old have a brilliant future behind them. Maybe that is where the curb is, where there comes these two opposite sets of mind when "fate" is concerned.

Aspiring young people hate the word.

From this definition of the feature of the "young", I am, distressingly, not qualified to be one of them. Of course, I do not literally believe in "fate", like people who seek fortune tellers and palm readers do; and all my "superstitious behaviours" are restricted to doing some online quizzes about "who is your perfect match?" and publishing my "astrological sign" on Facebook or having unconsciously let my grandpa decide on my name based on "which of the five elements is missed in you".


But I never deny the existence of "fate", which someone alleges to be "chance", which I take in with a grain of salt.


You can be born rich or poor. Isn't that sort of the simplest form of the nebulous concept "fate"? How could you possibly know anything about it when you are just floating in the fabuous amniotic fluid in your mother's womb, licking fingers? You may say, parenthesis is not important, rich or poor, there are people who make a bonanza out of life against all odds----they changed their fates. But what is to say about those who are born paralysed or deformed due to his or her mother's gross neglect of pre-natal care, say, chain-smoking, or more heartrendingly, a child born with AIDS? What is that magical force that dumps them in the mishap, if not fate?

Again, it sounds pessimistic. Why blame something that you cannot control on "fate", and sit there crossing fingers instead of taking some concrete actions to "make a change"? It is a catch-phrase we all like, isn't it? "Change we can believe in" has become an adage which lit up many desperate Americans' lives in this horrendous economic torrent, hasn't it? Once I scribed it neatly on my whiteboard as a motivator, didn't I?

Aren't these testifying that people are by heart defying against their "fate"?

Not exactly.

Those who admit the presence of limitations and restrictions due to their fates are not necessarily those who strive for nothing and complain day after day in utter idleness. People can be back in the shackles over and over again without being deterred, but the shackle is there. There is no denying about that. You can be unfazed by it at all but it refrains you from going beyond the limit which is possible for the others who are limb-free. Of course, whether the others take the advantage of their merits or just waste them is another story. But given the same circumstances, we can say that one has a better "fate" than the other, a more promising destiny laid ahead.

We live in a world with rules binding us. The rules are set favouring a certain group of people, yet disadvantageous to the other, though in a certain system of so-called "relative fairness". This "relativity" is where the gap is, maybe not a big one, but certainly one that can be felt. Admitting to "fate" is not equivalent to succumbing to it, nor is it comparable with "restricting the dimension of your dream", since in the first place, the dimension of your dream is pre-restricted. If you want to go beyond the boundaries, go ahead. But the extra work against odds is needed.

That is the objectivity and authenticity of fate.

That is how fabulous the nebulous concept can be. However, there is another form of fate that I believe everyone (except those serious-cum-realistic jerks) wants to acknowlege its existence----the fate of love (given that the love is not founded on materialistic needs or carnal desires). Certain people meet and fit in each other like jig-saw puzzles; they just look at each other and know that they are M.F.E.O. (made for each other). And they attribute it to a certain "magic", of which I am more than willing to acknowledge, too.

Still not convinced?

Still feeling ambitious to change your situation, which according to you has nothing to do with your fate?

Here comes the final touch to give my preaching of "fate" a tone of finality.

Those admirably tenacious souls, if you want to fight against the odds and believe that nothing is more overwhelming than one's will power, go ahead to desire and aspire and change your "situation" (not fate, see?) I believe the hard work will be paid of due to this rule of "universe":

"If you aspires something too much, the whole universe will conspire to help you."

But after all, even if that is true, isn't it "fate"?:P

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By the way, for those who want to explore more about the "fate of love" or that peculiar "chemistry", I strongly recommend you to watch the movie "Sleepless in Seattle". It weaves part of the tapestry about the "love magic".