The Three Sisters

In Greek mythology (and also described in other contexts in Roman, Romanian, Germanic Norn and Bavarian folklore), there were three sisters of fate, otherwise known as Moirae. They controlled the thinly-woven thread of each life, be it God, animal, or human. Clotho spun the thread from her distaff, while Lachesis measured it with her rod and determined how much time on the Earth would be allotted to each person. The final sister, Atropos, cut the thread, and in doing so, chose how each death would occur. Worshiped, revered but ultimately feared, they determined the course of each existence on the third day after birth, and that path could not be diverted from. Each moment, each experience, each monument was already decided, to the ignorance of the individual. People were merely players in a script that had already been written, reading it for the first time page-by-page on an all-too elaborate stage.

I've never been quite certain as to my feelings on fate. There are moments when I believe in destiny and the inevitable, and times when I doubt there is such a cosmic plan and feel that the course of time is driven by the twins of choice and chance. To believe in a pre-destined path is both comforting and stifling at the same time - it is disconcerting to believe that you have little choice in the course of your own life, yet, in times of despair or trouble, sets the mind at ease. It is consoling to believe that everything happens for a reason, and all will turn out well in the end.

And indeed, there are coincidences in my life that make me feel that it is all too perfect to be random...that the puzzle-pieces form too complete a picture to be the product of luck.

And then still, at times, life seems haphazard and unforgiving, and it seems that any purpose for it is impossible to find.

It is one of those unending, impossible questions that cannot be answered in life, and will only be resolved in the afterlife, if such a thing exists. And in truth, does it really matter what drives our destiny? Our life will occur as it will either way, and perhaps it is best to simply believe that which is most comforting, or most akin to our other beliefs. Perhaps to debate the existence or non-existence of fate is pointless. If there is destiny, than our best choices and decisions are certainly a part of it. If not, then they should aide in creating a better future.

And maybe there is the possibility of there being both...rather than a inevitable, singular path, perhaps each life is instead a complicated maze of twists and turns, cross-roads and caverns, forks and falls. A path in which there are several destinies, and the quality of your choices and actions determines the final outcome.

If such is the case, then I propose a different triad of sisters.

Call them Choice, Chance and Fate.

And you may believe in whichever set of sisters you choose.