Character and Destiny
"If only I can turn back time..." It's a lyric and, no doubt, has been a gripping sentiment for anyone who has ever come face to face with a miserable destiny and awoken to the idea of cause and effect, and begun to form all sorts of haunting interpretation for the previous decisions and action which could possibly have led to the undesirable consequence.
While a time machine is out of logic, nothing stops a person from looking back to interrogate himself whether he would do it again or otherwise if given another chance. But the question means absolutely nothing if not as a lesson for the future, because history was already made and there would never be another chance for the same decision with everything else being exactly constant. Life is not a mathematical riddle or chemical experiment where one can set things constant and try again.
So what is alluring about the idea of a time machine is more about the benefit of hindsight than the fancy for the future. People tend to hang on to the past but fear the future. One only anticipate the future for some promising outcome, as in consulting a fortune-teller, and choose to ignore the unpleasant possibilities, or at least keep them beneath consciousness. But it is the uncertain future, instead of the known past, which we still have the chance to shape at present. Taking a deterministic stance, therefore, the whole point of looking back is not to relive any sentiment but master the future.
Of course, the question becomes "to what extent a person can master his own future?" The more I age and the longer I look back, the more I become convinced that it is to the extent which a person's character determines his destiny. A person's character, hence his attitude to life, predominately determines how he interacts with people, therefore, influences what opportunities will come his way and, deterministically, how he makes the best of them.
So whether, or to what extent, life's destiny is bound by fate, perhaps, rests on a person's character - whether, or to what extent, it is inbred or nurtured. Regardless of which, now I choose to believe in self-cultivation as I do in fate.
While a time machine is out of logic, nothing stops a person from looking back to interrogate himself whether he would do it again or otherwise if given another chance. But the question means absolutely nothing if not as a lesson for the future, because history was already made and there would never be another chance for the same decision with everything else being exactly constant. Life is not a mathematical riddle or chemical experiment where one can set things constant and try again.
So what is alluring about the idea of a time machine is more about the benefit of hindsight than the fancy for the future. People tend to hang on to the past but fear the future. One only anticipate the future for some promising outcome, as in consulting a fortune-teller, and choose to ignore the unpleasant possibilities, or at least keep them beneath consciousness. But it is the uncertain future, instead of the known past, which we still have the chance to shape at present. Taking a deterministic stance, therefore, the whole point of looking back is not to relive any sentiment but master the future.
Of course, the question becomes "to what extent a person can master his own future?" The more I age and the longer I look back, the more I become convinced that it is to the extent which a person's character determines his destiny. A person's character, hence his attitude to life, predominately determines how he interacts with people, therefore, influences what opportunities will come his way and, deterministically, how he makes the best of them.
So whether, or to what extent, life's destiny is bound by fate, perhaps, rests on a person's character - whether, or to what extent, it is inbred or nurtured. Regardless of which, now I choose to believe in self-cultivation as I do in fate.
Comments
I could not foresee myself to move on after the great lost of my beloved
husband almost 2 years ago. Ever since, I found my life devastated,
clueless and completely lost, as nothing good seemed to ever happen in my
life back than.
Until one day I found my turning point and learnt that my survival was
actually about reclaiming myself. It's about learning to love who I am,
making wise choices, setting new goals, and finding out what really makes me
happy... I started it all with rediscovering those things I
always wanted to do.... Emphasized on making the most of current
opportunities I had because life was short and my time was fleeting.
It eventually got me into thinking, there must be a reason if I am now
still to come alive...And be it a good reason! So for all my life, I will
keep find the reasons through the given times and growing experiences.
Whatever destiny given, I try not to let the situation makes me. Even if I
were to put in undesired course, failures and time limit.
I should learn how to deal and overcome with things and just like you said,
make the best of them.(Though honestly speaking its never been easy for me n I still failed sometimes ;p)
Again, it is ourselves to choose.
In my term, I call it "a sure real challenge that requires all the highest
features a human-being can possibly do". Be it might beyond boundaries, but
who knows? It is a character of survival that counts.
In other words, I linger myself to Randy Pausch's line, "We cannot change
the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand".
Life is endless road. Once we passed and conquered the highest tide, the storm
might be readily awaiting. Hopefully the tougher it is, the greater we
become.
There's always a reward. And I want to make him proud of me =)
MK