It is impossible to avoid hurricane Katrina in the news; so, let’s just go with the flow…

     What all this wind and weather calls to mind – at least a Chinese philosophy-influenced mind – is fate and how we respond to it.  Katrina is another reminder of how much of our lives we do not control.  Of course, sitting up here in unscathed Massachusetts, I have not been personally affected by the destruction.  But what has happened in the South, in the most general way, is the intrusion of the uncontrollable into everyday lives.  It was not so much unexpected: all of us could watch the gradual approach of the giant storm.  But there was really nothing that could be done against it, expect to flee to higher ground.   How often is this the case in other facets of our lives?

      This is not just about the weather.  It is about our
assumptions of our mastery over the particulars of our lives.  Yes, we
can control a fair amount of what happens to us.  But, let’s face it,
there is much beyond our capacities to manage and dominate.  I think
about this a lot with Aidan.  It was, at first, a matter of the most minute molecular processes, out of medical sight and intervention, that ultimately produced his disability.  And that has completely changed our lives.  Unlike Katrina, it was completely unexpected; but, like the storm, there was nothing that could be done to keep the inevitable from unfolding.  Maybe that is even more difficult: not just the uncontrollable event, but the unexpected and uncontrollable simultaneously.

     I think Americans do not handle fate very well.  We are raised to believe that through sheer individual effort we can overcome obstacles to a good life.  There is some truth in that.  Yet there are some conditions that are simply insurmountable by even the most sincere effort.  What then?  How often do we misunderstand others when all we can see are their shortcomings or failures?  Mencius, who, as a Confucian, expects individuals to assume responsibility for their social duties but still leaves some room for fateful circumstance, has a nice line:

Mencius said: "When you speak of the virtues another lacks, think of the trials you may yet endure." (144).

    Conversely, how often do we attribute success to our own unique talents and efforts, ignoring that predecessors and environment may be just as important?

      Are we more ready to recognize fate when things go wrong than when things go right?