Fate and Coincidence
“Is there anything like Fate? Are our lives planned out from beginning to end? Well, many people believe that there is something bigger than us. That there is a reason for everything. Some believe that everything is a coincidence. It all depends on if one relies on things of more importance to us. Some believe that coincidence is real and not fate. However, none of this can ever be truly proved.”
Webster’s Dictionary of Synonyms compares them. Fate suggests inevitability. Fate is the most evocative synonym. It derives from the Latin for, “to be spoken.” The spoken word is powerful. The world has the power to enspell and ensorcell you. Coincidentally or not, the word “spell.” derives from the Old English spelling, “to be spoken”, the same word as far. When one letters, one casts a spell and cast one’s fate.
Coincidence is appropriately more mundane, “a seemingly planned sequence of accidentally occurring events.” One might ponder over the collision of events that were fated to take place, but one is mistaken. It signified nothing. But searching as we all do for an explanation and a sense of importance, one creates his fate by spelling out the meaning from a jumble of coincidences.
We’ve all had it happen to us. We think about someone who we haven’t Seen in a while, and later that same day, we bump into them. We have an ominous feeling that something bad is going to happen and it does. We have a dream that predicts our future. We look back at events in our lives and we see them fitting together as in a puzzle.
You think to yourself, “If it hadn’t been in that exact place, at that exact moment, my life would have gone in a totally different direction. I wouldn’t have a net this or that person. I wouldn’t have done this thing or that thing. I would have taken that job instead of this one. I would have married that boy instead of my husband.”
It is all connected somehow. Or is it just coincidence? The notion that Death itself might actually be capable of “Stalking it’s prey” with a pre-laid out plan as to where, when and by what means our ends will be met is an intriguing one to ponder. Most are familiar with the long list of unexplained “coincidences” related to the assassinations of Presidents Lincon and Kennedy, but less are familiar with those other equal, but no less eerie, examples of fate in it’s most obvious form. While it may sometimes be alluded to in certain situations, it is also often ignored, for the most part, outweighed by common logic and rational explanations of reason. Coincidence is the term usually applied to ironic aspects of a happening. The superstitious fear of the number 3 and 13, when applied to certain situations for example.
In the 1997 car crash that took the life of Princess Diana, another car (never located) was thought to have side-swiped the Princess’ vehicle as it entered the tunnel causing it to hit the number 3 support beam, just inside the entrance. This then sent the car she was riding in out of control, causing it to strike another beam farther down-number 13. It was beam 13 that caused the majority of damage to the car and was ultimately responsible for her death. Was it fate or coincidence that out of all those beams that line the inside of that Paris tunnel, only those particular two were involved?
To many, a fate only occurs on a personal level. Chain reactions exist, certainly, where one person’s behavior results in a massively far-reaching effect, but they are not ruled by fates, incidents, and chain reactions with a broader range of impact, such as the butterfly effect, have no intended purpose. It is fate that can play the triggering role within the intimate confines of a single person’s life. Sometimes, there are certain events in our lives that are just meant to happen. Those events happen for slime reason in some person’s lifetime, meant to influence only the person they happen to.
Some years ago I happened to hear a strange but true incidence “A lady gets on a tractor trolley full of forest wood. A serpent creeps into her garments, she cries, but the driver of the tractor does not hear her cries. A motorcyclist was passing through the way. He hears her cries. He signals the tractor to stop, but the tractor does not stop. He takes his motorcycle back and asks again to stop the tractor. The lady sitting in the tractor trolley throws away the serpent. The serpent lies on the motorcyclist and bit him and he died on the spot. What can be concluded? Was it merely a coincidence or the death was predetermined and it was his fate.”
No doubt, coincidences happen too. Not every occurrence in a person’s life is fated. Some are tough and randomness rules them. Ah, the paradoxical logic of my thinking. The fated meetings, actions, observances, even passivity that a person experience takes place without warning or seeming direction free will itself can direct the fatefulness in one’s life, so it is practically impossible to recognize those things that are fated. There are no markers to indicate a fated meeting from an unfated one. In retrospect, it is only a supposition.
So what exactly is the difference between fate and coincidence? Rather what evidence is there that fate exists in the world of randomness? That’s where personal faith comes in. Sure, there are profits to reveal the existence of God and so forth, but ask anyone who isn’t Tomas Aquarius who relies on God why he or she does and pared-down, you’ll receive mainly a faith-based response. I, therefore, have faith in fate. Some coincidences are just too coincidental to be random.
