Destiny – Humble or Otherwise

When you get to the later stages of life you can easily fall into the trap of looking back on all those years – years that just seemed to melt away into nothing, to see if you accomplished anything with the gift, the life you received. If you have a family, children and grandchildren you can see the physical reality of your consequential existence. For the many, through the existence of their children their posterity is guaranteed and that is enough – their humble destiny is fulfilled. Some few others, however, would see fate's insidious hand working its mysterious way among men and women.

I read Dave Silverbrand's article in the Thursday, September 9, 2010, Times-Standard: “Accepting one's humble destiny” where he concludes by saying: “My destiny has been to humbly accept what comes my way.” Apparently, his destiny was to simply be just a humble man floating on the winds and waves of time. I am inclined to believe, however, there is more to Dave Silverbrand than that.

Personally, I was never afforded that luxury – to “humbly accept what comes my way.”  Destiny got its hooks into me at an early age and as a consequence I was forced to stare down fate every day. To be sure, on rare occasion, what came my way has managed to cause some humility. Like Dave I spent some time in South America and got to see what it meant to be obscenely rich and obscenely poor. I also had the opportunity to lay on a gurney in a Hospital Emergency Room and hear a doctor ask my wife if she would like them to call in a minister or a Priest. I distinctly remember raising my head, looking down past my feet a her wide-eyed face and thinking: What the hell? This isn't going to happen (DIE) I haven't told her all the things I need to tell her. That was almost 6 years ago and I must admit, I still haven't told her everything. Yeah, the heart medication slows me down some too. A less humble person than I might think I thwarted destiny that fateful Thanksgiving Day. Instead I give thanks to destiny's God everyday for the prompt, caring response of the firemen, ambulance drivers, pilots and paramedics, the doctors, nurses and hospitals, all who were just doing their everyday jobs.

Have I fulfilled my destiny yet? Do I and did I have to “accept what comes my way” – life? There were always choices. I chose to entangle my destiny with the ambivalent destiny of another - a lifelong soul mate. When I looked back and saw all those missed opportunities I was denied, and with the wisdom of time realized it was all for the best, I began to take a second look at what I had really done as only I could do it. Destiny's fateful hand had guided me all the way, provided me with the requisite protection and allowed me the innate ability to offer the value of myself as only fate could demand. To become the person I was always destined to be.
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--Joe