What decides how your life turns out? My husband always says you choose your own destiny. Is it like one of those books? "To battle the monster, turn to page 32; to wet your pants and run away, turn to page 79." And will path A and path B have different outcomes, or do all roads really lead to Rome? Can you change your fate? And would you really want to?
Then there's the idea of alternate realities. I never really got into that whole idea, but what if there actually is no choice to make, you do A and B both, they lead to different places or the same place, but you're only aware of one at a time. Could it be like that Nicholas Cage movie "Family Man" where he wakes up one day married to his dream girl instead of being a crusty old bachelor who can't throw his socks in the hamper? Heck, why not time travel too?
What about the theological concept of predestination and foreknowledge? Of course it's basically meant to be applied to redemption, but God won't mind if we generalize it. Does the Great Brain in the Sky have a big dollhouse up there with a little dolly for each of us? "I think it would be fun if Sam got stuck in a rainstorm without an umbrella today"? What did a friend once say? I'm God's hackey sack. Or does He just have a big crystal ball that lets him see what's going to happen? Point of interest. If you go with the crystal ball theory, is that still God? A question for another day.
If you can change your fate, would it change just the details or the whole enchilada? Would I just have different cats and a longer nose to look at across the table over breakfast and still be the same happy, satisfied person? Or would I be an old maid who got not pleasure from life, or slave to a dozen snot-nosed brats that gave me no peace, or for that matter buried under the ashes of a bombed building somewhere in the world?
(As long as I'm asking, will Jesus and Mohammed both give you the Golden Ticket, if there is such a thing?)
RC
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