Fate/Destiny (in terms of love)...as the guys from Monday Night NFL Countdown would say - "Come on, man!"
I hate to sound like Mr. anti-romance or a skeptic of love, but after watching a romantic comedy last night and hearing this woman's story about how it was destiny that she ended up with a particular guy, I felt the need to write about it.
She said something along the lines of, "He approached me and asked about a book I was reading and that's how it started. What if he had been late that day and we missed each other at the coffeshop? What if I wasn't reading that very book? What if he hadn't read that book? It was fate."
Given Twitter and like sites where people like to believe that they are the center of the universe and even if they're just munching on a bagel while completely naked dancing in the living room to "Sunglasses at Night," they feel the world wants to know. We've become an extremely narcissistic society and I think this idea of romantic fate or destiny is a prime example of that.
Perhaps it's partially due to Hollywood romance films or romance novels and we all want to have that magical story attached to our life-long partner. We all want to believe it's a movie made especially for us, that we were destined to find this love, this joy, just like the ones depicted in film or novels. The two people lock eyes and right then, they know it's meant to be. That or it happens in hindsight. After they tie the knot, they each look back and think, "Well, if that hadn't have happened or that, or if I had done this differently, it wouldn't have turned out this way. It was obviously fate." I'm sorry, but I can't buy this.
I know we all want those magical stories, unique only to us, which make us think like we're in the movies, but many of these stories, while unique due to the individuals involved, are similar in the context surrounding said characters. There are too many "what if's" when thinking back on "fate". "If this didn't happen," "if I hadn't have said this," "if he/she hadn't have done that..." Well, we'll never know. What happened happened and any and everything else is purely speculation. What if he hadn't have said that? We'll never know. What if she hadn't have done that? We'll never know. If, in the story above, the woman showed up late and never met this guy, she would have found this "magical story" with someone else. It's about chance. It's not like these two were DESTINED to be at that same place at the same time and it would result in long-lasting love. It just happened.
All of these stories we have about finding the person we eventually wind up with are unique and special to us, but to the world at large? Eh, not really. They'll always play out like some special script in our eyes, but no one else's. There are 7 billion people in the world. Are we really to believe that of 7,000,000,000 people, there's 1 person with whom we're destined to be with? As the guys from Monday Night NFL Countdown would say - "Come on, man!"
She said something along the lines of, "He approached me and asked about a book I was reading and that's how it started. What if he had been late that day and we missed each other at the coffeshop? What if I wasn't reading that very book? What if he hadn't read that book? It was fate."
Given Twitter and like sites where people like to believe that they are the center of the universe and even if they're just munching on a bagel while completely naked dancing in the living room to "Sunglasses at Night," they feel the world wants to know. We've become an extremely narcissistic society and I think this idea of romantic fate or destiny is a prime example of that.
Perhaps it's partially due to Hollywood romance films or romance novels and we all want to have that magical story attached to our life-long partner. We all want to believe it's a movie made especially for us, that we were destined to find this love, this joy, just like the ones depicted in film or novels. The two people lock eyes and right then, they know it's meant to be. That or it happens in hindsight. After they tie the knot, they each look back and think, "Well, if that hadn't have happened or that, or if I had done this differently, it wouldn't have turned out this way. It was obviously fate." I'm sorry, but I can't buy this.
I know we all want those magical stories, unique only to us, which make us think like we're in the movies, but many of these stories, while unique due to the individuals involved, are similar in the context surrounding said characters. There are too many "what if's" when thinking back on "fate". "If this didn't happen," "if I hadn't have said this," "if he/she hadn't have done that..." Well, we'll never know. What happened happened and any and everything else is purely speculation. What if he hadn't have said that? We'll never know. What if she hadn't have done that? We'll never know. If, in the story above, the woman showed up late and never met this guy, she would have found this "magical story" with someone else. It's about chance. It's not like these two were DESTINED to be at that same place at the same time and it would result in long-lasting love. It just happened.
All of these stories we have about finding the person we eventually wind up with are unique and special to us, but to the world at large? Eh, not really. They'll always play out like some special script in our eyes, but no one else's. There are 7 billion people in the world. Are we really to believe that of 7,000,000,000 people, there's 1 person with whom we're destined to be with? As the guys from Monday Night NFL Countdown would say - "Come on, man!"
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