Art by Tom Berry
You look back on some little decision you made and realize all the
things that happened because of it, and you think to yourself "if only
I'd known," but, of course, you couldn't have known.
Mary Downing Hahn
I just read an interesting novel called "Life After Life" by Kate Atkinson. It challenges our notions of time and free will, telling the story of an English woman who is born to the same parents over and over.
This sounds like just another hokey reincarnation tale, but it's about how the smallest decisions can change the course of world history. The main character eventually learns about her ability to restart her life, although she doesn't always correct events. The question is the role of trivial decision-making in determining "Fate."
This sounds like just another hokey reincarnation tale, but it's about how the smallest decisions can change the course of world history. The main character eventually learns about her ability to restart her life, although she doesn't always correct events. The question is the role of trivial decision-making in determining "Fate."
On airline flights, there's usually a handful of people who change their plans at the very last minute, either of necessity or just some superstitious impulse. On TV, one of these would-be passengers on the Malaysian Airline flight talked about the "Intervention of Providence" that prevented him from boarding that doomed plane.
What an awful mystery! And in this day and age, what could be more riveting than a total lack of information?
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