destiny
when i went home to pennsylvania labor day weekend i caught dinner with scotty, an old high school friend, at the local steakhouse. the two of us have certainly gone different routes over the past 15 years; he being conservative, i being liberal. nonetheless, we remain good friends. not one to shy away from meaningful conversation, my friend asked me whether or not i believed in destiny.
"you mean, like fate?" i asked. given that assumption, i was quite certain that i didn't believe in the topic at hand.
"no, that's different," he replied, "that's what you suffer if you don't pursue your destiny."
scotty introduced me to the catholic definition of destiny. as it goes, god has defined a purpose for each and every one of us, but it's up to the individual to (a) figure out what that plan is, and (b) execute on that plan once you think you've got that figured out. the church's definition was a little different from what i expected.
knowing what i know about my friend, his beliefs are very clear from his actions: he's an entrepreneurial self-starter, a driven opportunist.
although my beliefs lay in self-defined purpose, i share my friend's belief of execution: no one is going to get you out of bed in the morning and make you live the life that needs to be lived.
"perhaps you and i aren't so different," i replied.
[...]
last month, k and i found ourselves conversing about athletics at her apartment. not one to shy away from conversation, k asked me why i ran.
it took me no more than a second to come up with my answer, but i decided to test the waters a bit. "well, what do you think i'm going to say?" i responded.
"let's see..." k pondered. "you're certainly an achiever: you always want to be better, faster, breaking PRs. i'd say that it: continual challenge, constant improvement."
"hmm. kinda sorta," i said with reluctance to confirm her speculation. "actually, you really want to know? i run because i believe that it's a gift. truly. i don't know who gave it to me--a former variant of myself who established the foundations during adolescence, my parents who gave me my blood, the divine who may-or-may-not-have done something, whatever--but i undeniably have it. and it's nothing shy of a blessing. and it'd be a damn shame to ever take it for granted and let it slip away. that's my answer to your question."
if that isn't a sense of destiny--no matter what definition you're using--i'm not sure what would be.
[...]
a few weeks ago, i found myself reading getting things done as a means of self-improvement in my professional life. in this work, the author talks about the flaws of the human mind when it comes to keeping organized, and how we can use the strengths of our mind to work around these flaws. he cites the common example of placing work documents beside your keys so that you never forget them at home. "on any given day, your mind would fail to remember those work documents," the author writes*, "but your mind never fails to remember that you need your keys to leave your house. the well-organized take advantage of this mind/keys relationship and creates a new association. you can't fail."
is this the explanation, the justification for destiny's existence? is destiny nothing more than keys which we lay our dreams beside, lest our feeble minds forget them? if that's the case, it certainly seems to work. it leaves me wondering what else i could be leaving by my keys, what else i may be leaving behind.
___
* paraphrased
"you mean, like fate?" i asked. given that assumption, i was quite certain that i didn't believe in the topic at hand.
"no, that's different," he replied, "that's what you suffer if you don't pursue your destiny."
scotty introduced me to the catholic definition of destiny. as it goes, god has defined a purpose for each and every one of us, but it's up to the individual to (a) figure out what that plan is, and (b) execute on that plan once you think you've got that figured out. the church's definition was a little different from what i expected.
knowing what i know about my friend, his beliefs are very clear from his actions: he's an entrepreneurial self-starter, a driven opportunist.
although my beliefs lay in self-defined purpose, i share my friend's belief of execution: no one is going to get you out of bed in the morning and make you live the life that needs to be lived.
"perhaps you and i aren't so different," i replied.
[...]
last month, k and i found ourselves conversing about athletics at her apartment. not one to shy away from conversation, k asked me why i ran.
it took me no more than a second to come up with my answer, but i decided to test the waters a bit. "well, what do you think i'm going to say?" i responded.
"let's see..." k pondered. "you're certainly an achiever: you always want to be better, faster, breaking PRs. i'd say that it: continual challenge, constant improvement."
"hmm. kinda sorta," i said with reluctance to confirm her speculation. "actually, you really want to know? i run because i believe that it's a gift. truly. i don't know who gave it to me--a former variant of myself who established the foundations during adolescence, my parents who gave me my blood, the divine who may-or-may-not-have done something, whatever--but i undeniably have it. and it's nothing shy of a blessing. and it'd be a damn shame to ever take it for granted and let it slip away. that's my answer to your question."
if that isn't a sense of destiny--no matter what definition you're using--i'm not sure what would be.
[...]
a few weeks ago, i found myself reading getting things done as a means of self-improvement in my professional life. in this work, the author talks about the flaws of the human mind when it comes to keeping organized, and how we can use the strengths of our mind to work around these flaws. he cites the common example of placing work documents beside your keys so that you never forget them at home. "on any given day, your mind would fail to remember those work documents," the author writes*, "but your mind never fails to remember that you need your keys to leave your house. the well-organized take advantage of this mind/keys relationship and creates a new association. you can't fail."
is this the explanation, the justification for destiny's existence? is destiny nothing more than keys which we lay our dreams beside, lest our feeble minds forget them? if that's the case, it certainly seems to work. it leaves me wondering what else i could be leaving by my keys, what else i may be leaving behind.
___
* paraphrased
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