What Role Does Chance Play In Your Life?
As I’ve related here many times, working in a library provides me with many opportunities to see any number of books pass through my hands on a daily basis. Last Saturday in the afternoon Penelope Lively’s new book How it All Began made an appearance. As usually happens I leafed through the book, reading the book flap. What caught my eye was this quote:
What role does chance play in your life?
This from an Amazon.com review:
The author tells us that the plot is inspired by The Chaos Theory:
‘Chaos theory studies the behavior of dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions, an effect which is popularly referred to as the butterfly effect. Small differences in initial conditions (such as those due to rounding errors in numerical computation) yield widely diverging outcomes for chaotic systems, rendering long-term prediction impossible in general.’ Wikipedia
Charlotte, a woman of indeterminate age, but probably in her seventies, is mugged. She is thrown to the ground, breaking her hip, and her money is taken. That one incident has an affect on at least seven more people. While recuperating, Charlotte goes to live with her daughter, Rose, and Rose’s husband, Gerry. Charlotte finds it difficult to be dependent on others, Rose works as a personal secretary to an elderly Lord, an independent scholar, Lord Henry Peters. He suffers from a fading memory, but his ego has him believing that his words command everyone’s attention. Henry’s niece, Marion, a bit self centered, is an interior designer. Her work has slowed to almost no work. She has also taken up with a married man, Jeremy. Jeremy is a purveyor of other people’s junk, and a man who wants it all. His wife, Stella, is a nervous wreck, and she takes a multitude of medications. They have two daughters, and Stella has a sister, Gill, who would drive anyone to drink. Stella reads a text message one day that changes the course of her life. Back to Charlotte, she is a teacher to immigrants who have difficulty reading English. While she is housebound, she invites one of her students, Anton, who is in his forties, and an accountant, to Rose’s home for his tutoring. While he is receiving Charlotte’s assistance, he meets Rose and they strike up a friendship. All of these people and several they meet by happenstance have become affected by Charlotte’s mugging. We learn a little about them and how their actions affect others. Many questions linger on as time passes, and even though I could guess how their lives might change, the journey was delicious.
Anyone who has been around this blog for any length of time understands my opinion of chance, of coincidence, of accidents.
They simply don’t exist. Everything that happens in your life happens for a reason. I wonder whether Ms. Liveley realizes this as well and is playing her role as a transmitter of this knowledge. Sometimes the only way to reach the masses is to cloak your message in fiction. I find it interesting the person who reviewed How it All Began above used Chaos Theory as a term, even though that is indeed what Ms. Lively used as her plot device Chaos Theory is NOT widely known just yet. It is receiving more attention now as more people are writing about it and discussing it. The theory is not as widely viewed as the theory of relativity or evolutionary theory.
What do you think?
Does chance play a role in your life?
Can you cite an example?
I guarantee if you think of a time when you believe chance has played a role, if you consider it for some time you’ll come to realize that there was some other reason for the occurrence.
Perhaps you were delayed by something. Maybe you misplaced your keys or your wallet as you were planning on leaving. Taking the time to locate the missing items delayed you long enough to walk into your usual coffee place just in time to meet that special person. If you had left on time you would never have met.
Perhaps you were able to make all the green lights on your trip to work and by doing so you avoided an accident that happened to someone else.
Remember, just because something appears to have happened by chance. Nothing EVER does. There is a master manipulator. There is someone who pulls all the strings.
Have I at least given you something to think about here? The next time you THINK something has happened by chance, think back to this blog column and maybe you’ll come to see that it REALLY didn’t happen by chance after all.
Now after coming to the conclusion of today’s blog, do you still believe things happen by chance or are you willing to at least consider the fact that there is a design, that your life has played out the way that it has because there is a divine plan?
Give me some examples in the comment field where you realize that that was a specific reason for something that has happened to you. Can’t wait to hear from you.
Be Happy! Be Well! Be Positive!
Blessings to you.
—
Chris
