Ok I was just watching an episode of Tru Calling and it got me thinking.

 

Tru Calling (for those who have never seen it) is about a young woman who works in a morgue while studying for Med school, and find some of the dead bodies in the morgue (the bodies of those who died before their time) ask for her help. When they do, her day rewinds and she has to track them down and prevent their death.

 

Anyway, this got me thinking about whether what Tru does is a good thing. There is a 'opposite' character to Tru whose purpose is to make sure the people Tru is trying to save dies on the second day, because that was the way the universe / destiny wants it.

 

Now I don't know how many of you believe in destiny and fate etc, but I thought this posed and interesting dilema.

 

Let's throw reality out of the window for a second as I pose a hypothetical situation;

 

It is 12.36 in the afternoon. You are in town spending your hard earned wages. As you are making your way back to your car with a mountain of shopping bags you hear a commotion going on behind you. As you turn to look you see a young teenage boy of about 15 fleeing a supermarket with 3 bottles of vodka that he has stolen, security guards giving chase. As he attempts to escape he runs across a busy road. Although there is oncoming traffic, he knows he will make it if he doesn't stop. But as he runs, one of the bottles slips from his grip and he trips and falls into the road and is hit by an oncoming truck. You (being the caring citizen you are) rush over to see if you can help. A crowd has already formed and one woman shouts that she can't feel a pusle - he is dead. As the shock of seeing what you have seen hits you, you hear a voice, that appears to be coming from the road. "Help me". The next thing you know it is 9.00am that morning. Your day has rewound and you know you have just over 3 1/2 hours before the boys death. What would you do? Would you try and prevent the boy from dying by tracking him down and stopping him before her fled the supermarket and died. Or would you decide that what happens happens for a reason and get on with your day as before?

 

Now consider the fact that you have no idea what fate had in store for this kid. He may very well have gone on to be a world renouned doctor and be the person to discover the cure for cancer or Aids. In that case, you saving him was a good thing - it benefited the world that he lived because he did so much good. But alternitively, he could grow up to be something far worse - a rapist, a child molester, a murderer (after all he did die attempting to flee the scene of a robbery). In that case, you saving him would create a lot of hurt and torment for a lot of people in the future.

 

So what would you do if you had the choice? Would you step in and save the kid, or would you let detiny run it's course, and why?

hmmmmm .... i dont really like the premis of this, winding back the clock... it sounds awfully american to me.. if she did alter that youths life and he did get saved then everything else wouldnt match either. you cant go back and re-live that time without everyone else on earth doing something different too.

 

as for fate/destiny/preordination.... well (im 49) and its funny how in life some things just fall into place whilst other things just dont happen no matter how hard you try to make it happen.. when things fall into place you kinda think 'it was meant to be'... but... if thats the case, that everything is pre-ordained, then all we have to do is sit back and let 'god' or 'the gods' give us our life!!!

 

now to me, that flies in the face of reason, the reason why (if any) we are here. if we are here for a purpose then surely its to grow and develop,.... in nature if it doesnt grow, it dies... we werent created (or happend to be) just slobs, therefore we are to some extent masters of our own destiny, but if so.... where does that leave fate? and why should some kids get cancer? who would pre-ordain that?

 

i cant come down on either side, ive heard utterly compelling stories (like my m8, who metal detects, didnt know wether or not to ask his g/f to marry him, he prayed (hes a christian) the next day whilst out detecting he found a gold ring with the inscription "god doth ordain"... now that is well spooky as gold rings are as rare as rockinghorse $h!t!"!!) and science would say that fate does not exist... so i think that its probably totaly random, and theres so many permiatations that co-incidences will occur.