Blog Background...

Thanks to all who volunteered on my last blog note. No, I wasn't going to make you write a blog, do a quiz, give blood (or chocolate) or do much of anything that required any effort. What I was asking volunteers for, was for my new Easter blog background.

Yes, it was just that simple. Nothing exciting, nothing cloak and dagger-ish. I just needed a new background. I thought what better way to select my graphical victims then to have them volunteer.

I tried to get some of you to sign up, but you were skeptical. You were afraid. You were quietly lurking, wanting to know about this volunteer stuff before making a committment. I had to smile in that in real life getting anyone to volunteer meets with the same results. I, myself have been guilty of all of those responses. Sometimes eagerly waving my hand to be included in what sounds like fun. Sometimes quietly in the back of the room, hoping to slip out unnoticed before being cornered and persuaded to join up. Sometimes I would ask just what would all this entail and what exactly would my responsibilites be.

You just never know what you are getting yourself into when you volunteer. Hopefully you all, volunteer or not, will have a smile when you visit my blog page and see my new background for the next month or so. Much thanks to my little group of brave volunteers:

Truemasked wabbit, Wukky, Kanga, Gloggy, Stormydayinohio, Glenda, Zzee, Yar, Vero, Robert, Sueshoovrs, Aka, Um, Mrsralph.  

Fateful Blog...

 

I had a conversation the other day with another blogger and I made the casual remark that I believed in fate. His reply was, "really?" and then he went searching for a story he wanted me to read. He found the story and left me a note to read it. It was called, "The Story of Osmo" and it was about a rather plain man who leads an ordinary life and one day stumbles upon a book at the library with the same title as his name. Unable to find who authored the book, he begins reading in earnest, first with dismay and anxiety and then with interest as the contents of the book seem to be his life's story. Each chapter is a year of his life, and he is completely engrossed as he remembers more and more of his life, of things he had forgotten about in his childhood. He thumbs thru the book and is somewhat disheartened on seeing that there was only 29 chapters of the book. Already at the age of 26, he reads the end of the book, only to learn that Osmo dies in a plane crash in Fort Wayne, Indiana without renewing his life insurance policy. Osmo tells himself he won't be foolish enough to fly in a plane and he will remember to renew his policy.

As you can guess, when Osmo is 29 years old and is on a flight, an announcement is made that the plane needs to stop at Fort Wayne. Osmo, becomes panicked and tries to stop the flight, only to die when the plane crashes with him being listed as one of the main reasons for the flight's crash.

I can see why Um would want me to read the story after making my comment. It does give one a lot to ponder on, of fate, destiny and if we are in control or have any control of the outcome of our lives.

It got me to thinking a lot about fate, and how fate can mean so many different things to many different people. You hear the comment, "they were meant for each other, it was fate". Or you may have heard it mentioned for a person of huge talent, "he was fated for greatness". Mention of, "their fate was sealed", or "you can't change fate".

Fate seems to wear many hats. Believe in fated lovers and you are a romanticist. Believe in a set destiny of your fate and you are a pessimistic. Believing that you can change your fate makes you optimistic.

It's a lot to bend your mind around, this fate stuff. If you believe in fate and that there is a natural course that follows are you limiting yourself? If you believe in fate and that you can change your fate by the decisions you make does that make you unwilling to accept things in your life? And then if you do make those changes in your life was it really you that made those choices or fate stepping in and just letting you think you had some real choice in the matter?

Terrence posted a quote on his blog notes on liberals and conservatives and the correlation of their IQ's. I started to think of how that surely had to be tied in with the fate stuff. Perhaps our choices made by our spiritual, political, moral leanings are the groundwork for our fate. That is not to say a christian is going to live longer than an atheist, or a democrat's fate is better or worse than a republicans. It's the meshing together of those ideologies and beliefs that form our view of the bigger picture, that of fate.

Another blogger friend of mine, George, posted a video of a beautiful classical piece of music and wondered if any of those on his contact list could help him with the name of the piece. I listened to the music and it did sound familiar, but I didn't have a clue as to what it was. I could have tried to google on it if I had a basis for knowing where in the heck to start in the googling process. I went on to read the comments of the bloggers as they went back and forth on what they thought was the piece of music. All that ran thru my mind was, I know it's not "flight of the bumblebee"...

Thinking on those posts by my talented and brilliant blogging friends it struck me, that I am dumb as a post. Seriously,... dumb as a post. I don't know if I can blame my stupidity on fate, blame it on political/religious affiliation, or just blame it on not being that musically inclined. Maybe it is a bit of all of the above. Despite my shortcomings though, I enjoyed each post and each comment made by each reader of those posts.

Will any of that have a direct baring on my fateful outcome? Will it change my choices? How minute of a change or thought must we have before it becomes a factor? Is it just the big stuff that has the impact or the smallness of steps that lead up to it?

It makes one think a lot, reflect a lot, and eventually shrug ones shoulders and think, I will just have to take my chances.