Do You Believe in Providence?

[Karl]

Today I saved someone's life.

I was walking to work and stopped at a corner with a red light. A young man, wearing headphones was next to me. He started walking into the street and I saw a bus coming at him at about 30 mph. I screamed at him, and he stepped back, just as the bus was about to hit him. He could have been killed.

I did not have to walk that way this morning. Sometimes I take different paths on my way to work. If I hadn't gone that way,....He totally lucked out. Or was it luck..?

Just out of curiosity: A lot of people believe there is "A Plan". Some call it "providence", or "divine guidance". Many people live their lives, believing there is a plan, thinking that perhaps they are being punished if things go bad. What's your take?

Frequently I find myself looking back to the cause of my tinnitus, an ototoxic drug a doctor gave me last October. And I kick myself, thinking, if I could only go back in time and not have taken that drug. Or perhaps this thing is fitting into "a plan".

 

[DezDog]

Good job Karl! See how it's a good thing that you got up and lived your life today?

Kicking yourself about the drug is wasted mental energy. You have no way of knowing how your life would have been if you hadn't taken the drug at that time. You have to make the decisions you make with the information you have at that time. I try not to use hindsight as a stick.

 

[Karl]

DD-
Yeah, I try not to kick myself, looking in hindsight. My doctor helped me in one respect by giving me this drug for atrial fibrialation. He doesn't care that it gave me tinnitus.

I'm very much a "science person". I should have made my blog name "Science Officer", with a photo of my Spock as my avatar. I know a lot of people who live their lives thinking they are part of a plan.

Bad things can happen to good people.

 

[Markku]

I don't believe in any sort of plan or providence. Good people face bad things just as well as bad people might face good things they don't deserve. The guy Karl saved might just as well been a serial killer in the making, who really knows. It's all very much luck and coincidence this life of ours.

I just got note that my grandmother died at the age of 90, she had turned 90 yesterday and had a beautiful birthday party. Yes, she lived a long and good life, but no (besides advanced age) illnesses whatsoever that suggested a sudden passing. Still, I don't believe there was any divine intervention causing her heart to give up literally in a heartbeat. Well, actually my godmother (aunt) died at the age of 40, from sudden cardiac death also. Oh, and my other grandfather (the spouse of the grandmother who now passed away) died in his 40s from sudden cardiac thing. Oh, and my mom side's great grandfather also died very young of the same thing.

So I guess I know what's coming for me someday... but if I happen to live a long life, I don't attribute it to "the plan", I attribute it to maybe decreasing the odds (trying to lead a healthy life, maybe I haven't inherited some of the deadly genes etc...) and also luck and coincidence.

IMHO.

 

[DezDog]

Sorry about your grandmother Markku.

 

[Karen]

Markku,
I'm sorry to hear about your grandmother's passing, but it sounds like she lived a long and happy life. It was also quite lovely that you were able to see her at her 90th birthday party yesterday. I'm sure she knew that she was loved and cherished by her family, and there is no better to way to leave this life than under those happy circumstances.

Blessings to you and your family.