At lunch this week I heard someone say ”everything happens for a reason.” It made me stop and think…and I’m still thinking about it.
I struggle with this. On one hand, to say that everything happens for a reason is a powerful incentive to learn and grow. Take what happened with Comet Bhaktul; did that happen so that the 251 of us on the ship would have the chance to discover some hidden strengths within us? Did it happen to fulfill some kind of destiny? Did it happen to give our species a new beginning, which we maybe desperately needed?
On the other hand, I feel that to throw up my hands and say ”everything happens for a reason” means I have no say in what happens to my life. Am I powerless to control my own destiny? Has it already all been written down somewhere, and I’m just playing out a scene that has already been decided? I don’t like to think of my life that way. I’d like to think I have more control than that.
I’m still thinking about it, of course, but for now I don’t think that things happen for a reason. I believe that things just happen, and how we react to them is what’s most important. I don’t think that things have been decided, that they are somehow predetermined. Tomorrow is a blank slate, and there are an infinite number of possibilities; how I respond to each one will ultimately alter the next one, and the next, and the next.
If it’s not this way, then for what reason have I been blessed with intelligence and the ability to reason? I might as well just be a mindless assortment of atoms, pushed and pulled by destiny.
(Okay, Galahad fans, now it’s your turn. What do you think about all of this? Do you share Triana’s thoughts, or do you believe that things happen for a reason? Or do you think it’s somewhere in between the two? This is a good chance for you to sit and think about things, and then share your opinions. Just click on the Comments button below and post your opinion.)
I think that it is true that everything happens for a reason. I think this
because if certain thing hadnt happened the world might be extremely
different. Something happening can accidentaly cause a chain reaction. For
instance if America hadn’t won the war against Britain we could be under their
rule for all time. Too afraid to restart the war in fear of losing too many
lives. Also we could have an entirely different government. Plus maybe if we
hadn’t won we might not have influenced any other countries to astablish
freedoms. Or in other words if we hadnt won the war the world would be
different.
I think every thing happens for a reason
Things do happen for a reason. Say if you were in an accident and badly
injured and you did not die. God possibly has a plan for you and that plan
maybe does not include you to die-atleast not at that time in your life.
I think everything happens for a reason because god when he created us planned
out our whole life from start to finish.
I want to refer to Madeleine L’Engle in this response. In “A Wrinkle in Time,” Mrs Whatsit compares life to a sonnet: There is a set number of lines, a certain number of syllables in each line, and a strict rhyme scheme. (Otherwise it wouldn’t be a sonnet, it would be free verse.) However, the subject matter of the poem and the actual words in each line have to meet no requirements. The author is free to choose how to fill the poem, even though it is a certain type of poem and will always end, if you will, in a rhyming couplet.