Today’s topic is inspired as most of my other musings by an interesting event. Ok. Maybe not that interesting to someone else but I was amused. I recently got a fortune cookie without a fortune in it. The first thought that struck me was, “huh? did it eat it somehow?” but I only just cracked the cookie like a wishbone.
Then the mind went (over)active. Was my life was going to come to a sudden end? Do I have no future as no fortune was granted me? Or perhaps my life has been blessed by the gods and is going to be so awesome that a fortune isn’t needed.
Fortune cookies, palm reading, divination, astrology/horoscopes (sometimes horror-scopes from some that I have read), zodiac signs, crystal balls, tea leaves, mojo, etc
Where is this belief system coming from? Is it our continued want for an explanation of the universe? Is there any validity in any or all of this?
Why do some aspects carry more weight than others? Many of us know someone or ourselves that half-jokingly will talk about our astrological sign and kinda mean it. I’m in that same category. You could remove the name of the sign and start reading descriptions and you still might pick your own. For ‘research’ I picked a random astrology site and essentially did a n=1 study. Yeah. Pretty much holds true for me. I’m on a cusp and those two signs blended together speak true to me. I did go through each and every sign. There were some that were outright not me and others that got close but just missed the mark. Something to ponder. My element and the stone or actually the color of the stone were accurate as well.
We do the same thing with the horoscopes based on our signs. I think most people would agree that horoscopes tend to be vague enough that they can apply to just about anyone. Let me try… “You will meet someone soon that will have an impact in your life. You may not notice it in the immediate but this person will help guide you on your path.”
What about your biorhythm? I remember having a program (things called apps now) on my Palm Treo 755P (loved the device!!) that would show my biorhythm. I can’t say that it seemed very accurate but then I didn’t remember to use it often and I’m sure at some point I got rid of it to make room for something else.
Do we create our fortune based on these perceptions? If your fortune, in whatever form, indicates to you that you need to step up and be more aggressive to secure a new position and you actually do, then what? You fulfilled a prophecy of sorts because of what you read and you believed and acted, assuming that not acting you would not have gotten the new position. A deus ex machina vs carpe diem paradox? Thought to ponder.
Can lines be drawn? What I believe is true and what you believe is rubbish? Who could fathom believing in something ‘out there’ that has control over the future? Maybe it doesn’t have control and we are on our own. Maybe the future is predestined and that’s why people can make predictions about things outside of themselves. Maybe it is just two universes rippling and in that moment of contact between the two giving us insight (a real idea).
I can be honest with myself that I have experienced events in my life that I can’t rationalize in a logical manner and that I have learned to accept as a part of my past, present and probably as a part of my future. I don’t know where some of these insights came from about the present (at the time) and the future but they proved real.
We believe what we choose. That knowledge can come from others, books, media, our own experiences and anywhere/anything else that can communicate something to us. It all still seems to boil down to one thing. Faith. No. It doesn’t have to be faith in a god or higher power. It doesn’t even have to be complete faith. But at some point we do choose to believe in things that we may not be able to prove on our own. Is time linear or not? Will the sun come up tomorrow? Do UFOs exist? I choose to believe that the sun will shine on my side of the earth again tomorrow and that it won’t disappear before then. Statistically, there is a chance of other life, sentient or not, out there somewhere. I choose to believe a lot of things because it’s just plain easier than to question everything. Pick and choose the battles of faith as it were.
Maybe I’ll have no future because of that cookie. As Worf would say, “Today is a good day to die.” But I’ll believe for the moment that there was glitch in the processing plant and I just didn’t get a cookie with a fortune stuck in it. Stick a fork in me, I’m done.
-Santa’s Fallen Angel