Duel of the Fates

“Michael N. Schrage, you do not yet realize your importance. You have only begun to discover your power. Join me, and I will complete your training. With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict and bring order to the galaxy.” – Darth Vader

As everyone knows, I’m not a nerd.

Moving on.

Perhaps it’s because I write fantasy—still not a nerd—or that I hate the idea of random chaos controlling my life, but I believe in fate. Well, not fate in its traditional sense. In fact, I hate that idea of fate. The idea of some outside, inescapable force dictating my life, and that my life is predestined, is horrifying and sickening. Why bother trying if everything is already decided for you? It throws me into a very jarring paradox that I hate considering.

Rather, I believe that some things happen for a reason, to guide you down a certain path—an extremely broad path; extremely—to allow you to grasp certain opportunities, or just let them pass. Some things in life are supposed to happen, or there’s at least supposed to be the chance of them happening. This is confusing, I know, so confusing that I’m now perplexing myself.

Let’s give examples.

I feel like this should be explained around a campfire late, late at night.

I’m going to light a small fire on my rug.

That was a horrible idea!

Basically, say you’re supposed to throw a rock in a river. So this said path guides you down a road along a river, and there’s a few rocks on the road, and now it’s your choice whether you want to throw the rock into the river. Your path got you this far, to the rocks and the river, and now all the choices are in your hands. I’m much more comfortable with this idea, with all the important decision relying on us after the opportunity presents itself.

Like Luke. His path led him to his confrontation with his (SPOILER ALERT) father Darth Vader. This was Luke’s fate, and then he faced a rather important decision: become a Sith lord and likely fuck up the universe with Vader, or remain a Jedi and be sort of cool.

You know, I keep on thinking about stuff to write during the day, and then I fucking forget half of it. This is why I need to look like one of those psychopaths with notebooks in their pockets and pens everywhere, who just start randomly scribbling down shit during conversations and whatnot. Yes. I’m going to start carrying a miniature notebook with me, because I had a lot more to say about this topic, and now I’m angry and want to watch Star Wars and Lord of the Rings for some reason. All of them. Speaking of that, I really need to buy the trilogy on blue ray…

I’m going to stop writing now, after one more additional tidbit that I found very interesting today.

Setting: Chili’s bathroom. It’s a very nice bathroom, actually. I love that foamy soap. Anyway, Jar of Hearts starts playing on the radio. While I’m mostly a metal/folkish/ambient fan of music, I like all other genres—not country—and this is just a very good song. I enjoy emotion. I’m also playing a very challenging and rewarding version of Jar of Hearts on piano. Anyway, I’m in the bathroom and the song starts playing, and I’m like, hey, yeah, cool, swell, neato, this song is nice. I’m going to listen. And then the bathroom lights flicker and go out. So I’m standing there in the Chili’s bathroom, listening to Jar of Hearts, in the pitch black. Total, complete darkness, like I can’t see a single thing no matter where I look. So I have to use my phone as a flashlight to navigate out. However, I first stood there and listened to most of the song in darkness. Like most music, it sounded better in the dark.