Fate

     Oedipus the King is a story about a man who fails at trying to escape his fate. When he learns of what the gods have prophesized for him, he does all he can think to do to ensure his doom does not come true- he runs away. His oracle states that he will kill his father and marry his mother. He leaves his home of Corinth to make sure he will never fulfill his prophecy, scared of what the gods might have him do despite knowing he would never intentionally kill his father or marry his mother. He kills a man who drives him off the road on the way to Thebes. Upon arriving, he solves the riddle of the Sphinx and is made king, marrying the old king, Laius’s, wife, Jocasta.

     What Oedipus didn’t know is his parents in Corinth were not actually his parents. He was born in Thebes to Laius and Jocasta. When they heard about his oracle, they had Oedipus strapped to the top of a mountain. They hoped he would die there, and in turn not fulfill the prophecy. But Oedipus was saved and eventually brought to Corinth. There, Polybus and Merope raise him as their own. It turns out the man Oedipus killed on his way to Thebes was King Laius and Jocasta was his mother. In trying to escape his fate, he ended up doing exactly what the gods had planned.

     Is fate real? In today’s society, some people believe in fate. Others like to believe their life is totally under their control. If you want to change the way you live your life, change it. Some believe no higher power has any control. This is quite the opposite of what the ancient Greeks believed. They thought the gods had absolute power over everyone’s lives. They could do anything in their power to make someone fulfill their fate, like in Oedipus the King.

     In some ways, believing in fate may be a good thing. Today, some may think that if they are born into low economic status, it is their fate and they are doomed to be poor and unsuccessful their whole lives. Still, others might choose to take their background and be determined to change it. If we choose to challenge fate and take our lives into our own hands, good things could happen.

     German film Lola Rennt (meaning “Run, Lola, Run”) involves this very idea of fate. The main character, Lola, re-lives a certain situation three times until her and her boyfriend, Manni, end up out of harm’s way. Each time, she only does one little thing differently but ends up in a totally different situation. One time she gets shot and the second time her boyfriend gets hit by a car, but the third time she ends up winning a lot of money and both her and Manni end up safe. It is hard to believe spending an extra ten seconds talking to someone can have a dramatic effect on your life, but the truth is, everything in the world is connected, and your actions have effects on everyone around you.

     Drivers specifically can often relate to this. When passing an accident, it is weird to think, “If I had left the house thirty seconds earlier, that could’ve been me.” I recall a 9-11 documentary in which someone said as she was about to leave for work at the World Trade Center, she spilled something on her outfit and had to change. If that one quick event hadn’t happened, she might not still be alive today.

"Sometimes the slightest things change the directions of our lives, the merest breath of a circumstance, a random moment that connects like a meteorite striking the earth. Lives have swiveled and changed direction on the strength of a chance remark." - Bryce Courtenay