Destiny Scripted

Last night I watched two movies on DVD - 'Full Metal Jacket' and 'The Last Samurai'. This is not going to be a review but to be fair, 'Full Metal Jacket' is good solely because it is Stanley Kubrick's work. 'The Last Samurai' is a class on its own and only because Tom Cruise is in it. These two ranks very high on my list of 'must watch' movies.

In one of 'The Last Samurai' scene, Tom Cruise says,"A man does what he can, until his destiny is revealed." This got me thinking.

I strongly believe that a person's "destiny" is pretty much in his or her own hands. However, I also believe that certain events are predestined and essentially inevitable. I also believe in things like serendipity and coincidences.

So now the question becomes, if something happens to a person, how would she or he know that it was meant to happen no matter what that person might do? And does she or he even need to know. And how much of a person's life is, shall we say, "scripted".

I personally don't like the idea that whatever we do, regardless how little or insignificant it is, is scripted. It implies lack of control and the idea that I don't actually have any control of my own life is quite frightening.

When I think about it, our life is controlled by us with a few major events that are scripted, like cut scenes from a movie. If you believe in a divine being, then it is He who takes on this role. But that's my opinion.

Now, if only I wasn't too sleepy, I swear I would have downed another beer and pondered on this a little longer. But this was too much to take in for a night.

I was destined to sleep peacefully.