Meant to be, fate, destiny; what words do we use to express this topic? The word from the musical Kismet is now in everyone’s vocabulary (for those over a certain age anyway) as the Turkish word for fate or destiny. It is derived from the Arabic word qusma, meaning lot or portion, In Yiddish the word is Bashert. In Arabic, you can say Qadar” or ”Maseer. I know I, myself “overuse the term to give validity to the way things happen in every day life, the surprise encounters that seem spontaneous or accidental but I often believe there is some sort of plan or planner playing out our fate. Perhaps it is a game.
Things go awry or go well and we say there is a reason for this-it was “meant to happen” and is for the best. Otherwise how can one explain a chance encounter or unexpected outcome. You have a fleeting thought about someone and promised yourself you would contact them in a day or so, but just never get around to it. There they are walking down the same street, waiting near your hotel or restaurant in some strange and foreign land or simply calling you instead of visa versa. How about going on a hike and the trail offers a non-signed fork in the road. Hark, along comes some complete stranger and sets you straight. Or when bad things happen, we often say to the effect, “good can come from the bad.” Or you have some quirky episode, such as missing the exit from the highway and following your GPS that has recalculated and you end up passing or seeing a wonderful view or place you had not discovered before?
Lucky grandmother me; I am in Charlottesville staying with my teenage grandsons. Yesterday I picked Alex up from school and drove towards home on a route I have done now for almost two weeks. There we were engrossed in a discussion analyzing particular politicians and Alex, majoring in Psychology wisely applied some of his knowledge. Engrossed we both drove by the usual exit. This took us not much out of the way but through some of the most beautiful countryside in central Virginia. I declared this Bashert and was sure this was the reason I had driven by the exit.
As we drove up their long, dirt, turning and twisting mountain road to the farm, the real reason appeared; a beautiful albino doe, standing and starring back at us. too dark and too far away to whip out the cell phone/camera. We just savored her until she trounced onward into the woods. The unpredictable can be baffling, for the good or bad but it remains, unpredictable. The reasons for such situations may never be known.
Ann Carol Goldberg 1/3/18