Recently I had a discussion with my friend who believes in fate. I said how can you know? Yea, well, everyone has it's own fate, karma, that determines the past, present and future, she said. And she believes in angels. That's odd to me. I mean, to not believe is also a belief. But as a sceptic, you can't accept just an idea, just a guess. So I asked her, why some babies die, innocent babies? Why so many people starve, struggle, why are they born poor and suffer their whole life? And it's constantly more of them. Where is god? Why is fate so unjust? She had no good answer. I thought, what if all these theories are without any substance and there's no fate but just coincidence?Our weakness is that we don't know where we come from and where we're going! That's a fact. And all religions are created by people, who can't accept this fact, so through some delusions and charisma they create a religion and followers. I mean, if they're right, why is there so many religions, cults and beliefs? One truth should have one religion, unique to mankind. Yet reality is different. Actually religions are fighting for their 'holy' truth, waging wars and doing the most horrible things in the name of their idea. You won't find an atheist suicide bomber or pro-life terrorist or atheists rioting because of some cartoons. Anyway, what I want to say, so far, what my experience taught me, it all seems a huge coincidence or random interaction between people. You meet someone, you think it's the love of your life, you feel you are fated. Yet after a while differences start growing, many people keep the happy ideal image alive, but the relationship may not be as it seems. And how many cheat or have a lover and pretend they have a happy marriage? So many! I know, because I heard so many stories. And yea, human body is easy to get sick. That's our weak point. Accidents happen, because we're continuously on the move. We drive cars, we fly, we walk and we fall or we hit something. We break a leg, we catch a cold or we get a very bad desease - because that's what happens in nature. The gift of reason doesn't make us immune from these things. So what we call fate is actually a mixture of things that happen to us caused by others and the things that we do ourselves by making our own decisions. And in addition, there's some random natural things that happen to us - like being struck by lightning or having the house washed away by a landslide. That's something we can't influence, it just happens, because we're at the wrong place at the wrong time. That's coincidence, unfortunately a very bad one for us. We all live on Earth, not an ideal planet for fragile human bodies. We had no choice as mankind to chose our environment.
What we can do is make good choices, avoid bad situations and people who could harm us in any way (and of course, don't build a house on a steep slope). There's always a risk in life, but we must try our best. We can't escape problems, we must face them. Cuz all reason can't protect us from hardships, wise people learn from mistakes and make better choices in future. And keep in mind, many problems are actually ''problems'',that's why we have to make a difference and show a sound judgement on what is an actual problem and what is just a fictional problem.
And that's what I want to do in life. I want to enjoy it. I had some set-backs, some major disappointments in life since I was young and until now. It's for the first time I'm planlessly looking forward to the future, let things go the way they go, not trying to change them by force, not having too many expectations. Happy people are those who have low expectations, who are happy with small things in life. Striving for a big car, big house, a lot of money, that's of no real value to me. Material things make our life more convenient. Sure I'd accept money, but it wouldn't make me happy per se. For real happiness there's so much more needed. Love, friendship, trust. That's the things I'm striving for. And you?
[Photo, Penang, 2007]
