Fate

Some things are just supposed  to happen. Are they not? Like when a man and a woman meet one day on a bus, fall desperately in love and spend the rest of their lives together. Or when someone just happens to be in the right place at the right time to pull the old lady off the road as a truck comes hurtling past. Or when a seemingly infertile woman suddenly becomes pregnant after years of hoping. These things are so definitive, so life altering, there’s no way they can’t be part of some plan. Some sort of interlinking web where courses of action are just always going to happen.

But what about the other things. The little things. Like, should I walk to work today, or take the car? Should I do the ironing or watch the game? Should I eat in or out tonight? Surely they aren’t written into some big plan. Some big web. But then again, if I walk to work today instead of taking the car I could spot the newspaper stand on the street corner. I could pick up a paper because the front headline looks interesting. I could flick through the paper as I walk and a small article at the back catches my eye: it’s about a woman working in a new line of business, travelling from country to country advising and teaching this new business line. It also states they are recruiting new staff members.  I could think to myself: I have the skills and qualifications to do that job and it’s something I’ve never heard of before. By that evening the application is sent off and four weeks later I’m hired. During the course of the job I travel to different countries and it’s in one of these countries I meet the love of my life. We marry six months later and now I’m living in Spain with three children and a wonderful wife. I wouldn’t have this life if I hadn’t chosen to walk to work that morning.

Or would I?

Worlds

Isn't it fascinating to think we (we?) aren't really here? I'm not in the same world as you. And you're not in the same world as the next person. Your world has been crafted by the tiny connections in your mind, sparking and firing and creating this world of colour and emotion and perceived ideas. And it's completely different from the creation of any other mind in the universe. Is that fascinating, or is it terrifying? I guess that depends on your natural reaction to a question.
If you were standing in a bare room with a tiger you knew nothing about, a knife you've never used, and a door which you don't know opens or not, what would you do?
Would you
a) Turn and try the door, despite where it might lead
b) Pick up the knife and ready yourself to fight
c) Wait?

So tell me now, is the thought of being entirely alone in your world, with no one sharing exactly the same experiences as you, inspiring or terrifying?

If you answered A, is it safety and comfort you need?
If you answered B, do you steel yourself for every worst case?
If you answered C, how many possibilities are there in your world?

http://persiathorne.wixsite.com/persiathorne/inspire-me

Character

They say money makes the world go round. Whoever 'they' are, they've obviously spent too long in their dungeons. Money comes and goes, it gets us things, it takes things from us, but it doesn't always make an impression on us.
Sure, some people are changed by money, or the lack of it, but they needn't be and it certainly can't be taken for rule that they will be.
I'll tell you what I've found: it's characters that make the world go round. From the nasties to the lovelies, in real life and in the fiction of books and t.v and film. Each and every person - and sometimes not even a person's - character is known by someone or something and will, inevitably, make an impression.
Can you imagine a world where nobody made an impression on another? We'd all function like robots. In fact, we probably wouldn't even do that - where would we have learned to be like a robot?
Imagine, right now in your head, a person you've never met before. They will, undoubtedly, hold characteristics of many people you have met before. Imagine your ideal house. Again, your taste has been picked up from the characteristics of so many places and things you've seen in the past.

For me, this is why stories and novels are so important. They allow characters and personalities to be picked up from bits and pieces of one writer's whole life and transmitted to the minds and lives of thousands of others. And once you've read a character, you can't unread it. So, from the humble gesture of reading a few lines of writing, one can become as cultured and travelled as the next man.

What's more, there's something comforting about immersing yourself amongst wholly life-like, but essentially non-existent, characters. You can indulge in knowing their inner most thoughts and feelings with no regard for self-awareness as one would normally have in real life. You can feel a part of a character's world while merely being a bystander. And you're safe in the knowledge these characters want absolutely nothing from you - they exist purely for your entertainment.