It's pretty strange that so many people think this song is by The Pillows.

[aviolentrage]

Destiny and How It Relates to You

I've heard lots about destiny lately: it seems to be the theme of the month--at least as far as speculative, fanciful subjects go--and it's certainly as relevant now as it ever was. (I feel like there's a cheesy, ironic joke I could pop in there, but I'll let everyone come up with that one themselves.) I certainly don't find myself believing in destiny wholeheartedly, but as with most subjects of this nature, I find it interesting to consider the possibilities. Here's what I have arrived at:

• If all that I've heard in chemistry is true and I stayed awake through the important sessions back in 10th grade, every chemical reaction occurs in the only way it could have occurred given the circumstances, and every circumstance was set up by similar reactions. If we accept that--and I understand that this part is what some find doubtful--our brains are the centers which operate all our thought and sensation and that chemical reactions governed the creation and subsequent operation of our brains and ourselves as wholes, then we're but another factor in the enormous equation that is our universe's unfolding storyline.
  
  (I understand that some people believe that once in a while, a completely random twist and/or turn takes place, rendering the entire cause-and-effect theory useless, but for our purposes, let's just say it's true.)


• If we can respect and empathize with characters in books and movies, what's so dreadful about accepting that we, too, are subject to a higher plan? Would it not be ridiculous if, in the middle of Lord of the Rings, Frodo leapt from the pages and declared, "I give up. The rest of the trilogy's already written, so there's no use even trying to act like what I do will make a difference"? I think it'd be pretty horrible.
  
  I've been turning things over in my head and there's a good analogy that puts across my point, but I can't quite state it clearly enough. Essentially, those frustrated with predetermination are committing the fallacy of imagining their minds outside of a box and their destiny inside it; in truth, everything that exists is inside this box, meaning that every element you can imagine follows the same rules. Every memory you have, ever decision you've ever made, and every thought that occurs to you has occurred while these same "constraints" were in place--if they didn't get you down then, why should they get you down now?
  
  I guess the applicable point here is that all we can ever do is attempt to make the most given our knowledge and resources. Taking the aforementioned notion of destiny in a personal manner seems, to me, to be counterproductive and perhaps even foolish.

I had more to write here, but the truth is that I'm pretty sick of writing. Perhaps later! It was nice to update, whatever the case.