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?