* hi. ‘tis the season for holiday movie marathons and i caught one of my favourites, serendipity last night on tv. actually, it’s up there with one of my favourite movies of all time. starring kate beckinsale and john cusack, the storyline is based on fate - that some people are just destined to be together. it made me think about my previous post about karma and determinism and how fate and destiny both contradict and align with these beliefs. maybe it’s just the time of year or the fact that i just watched serendipity but perhaps the logical philosophers and hopeless romantics believe the same thing. maybe, just maybe, they’ve noticed the same pattern but evaluated, defined, and qualified it differently.
let’s begin by defining serendipity. to stay consistent with its implication in the movie, serendipity is a happy accident or pleasant surprise. an accident is an event or circumstance that occurs without intention. staying true to a (loose) form of determinism, the “accidental” event or occurrence was always going to happen due to the events and circumstances preceding it, but the human being caught up in it was caught by surprise and didn’t foresee it. so, serendipity is really an event or circumstance (or a series of such happenings as in the movie) that is positive for the person or people involved. i like that word.
fate and destiny mean the same thing for the most part; the former can imply an ending caused by death and the latter doesn’t necessarily. both mean a resulting state or circumstance that is predetermined but the events leading up to this unavoidable event are not. so, no matter what you do, you’re going to end up at your fate or destiny. kind of like humans have free will and the power to make choices and take different paths through life, but they all have established and certain endings at which they will all end up.
just my opinion, but if we all have predetermined destinies, it would make sense that we would arrive at and fulfill them if our paths were also predetermined – paths made of linear and intertwined chains of events and circumstances resulting from the happenings that came before. anyway, both schools of thought lead to a predetermined result. and since a person can be destined for many things throughout his or her life, it would make sense that there are things that have to happen to fulfill a true destiny. whether or not you believe it was free will or determinism that got you to a resulting circumstance, stuff happened that impacted a future outcome.
next, let’s define coincidence. the meaning of the word as it relates to the movie and certainly most of our lives is that a coincidence is just a form of synchronicity: the experience of events which are causally unrelated, and yet their occurring together carries meaning. like that time you missed the train but in doing so, bumped into an old friend you with whom you never would have connected with otherwise. think about it. how many times has something like this happened to you? how did it impact your future?
i guess i like serendipity because despite the lead characters’ best efforts to find each other, they kept failing until the right events happen. both characters realize the partner they’re currently with isn’t who they really want to be with and end it before they finally find each other, which only happens because of actions and reactions prior. cheesy, i know, but a good analogy.
maybe if we were all a bit more observant and watched for the signs, we would notice the pattern too. doing this wouldn’t impact our path or destiny (unless, of course, it was meant to), but it would certainly make life a bit more interesting.
i’d love your thoughts, as always.
k *
