Anything Considered

Cassius:
Men at some time are masters of their fates;
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

Julius Caesar Act 1, Scene 2

It is interesting how I sometimes remember the most trivial things. In a dream I had a few nights ago, snippets of my past sent and received smses flashed through my mind. I don't even have those messages now. But somehow, I could remember them. I don't know why.

Hindsight and memories of past experience are often used as aids to help us journey onward. And yet, for all the help it has rendered, there have been times when I found myself misguided. Different pockets of selective memories lead to different conclusions. I certainly cannot choose what I wish to recall.

If the past is partial and this past is our guide, then are we truly masters of our fate?

I am the kind of person who finds it hard to accomplish something that I cannot envision being accomplished. If I don't see it happening, I would not have the self-assurance to make it happen. And yet, there are specific times in my life when the impossible - the things which I could not envision and could not believe in - happened. Sometimes people get more than what they pray for - in a good way.

There are still many things in life that I do not see possible for myself. Important things, of course. And though I have the will to seek out the goal, I cannot, and there is no mastery in complication. But maybe, in some unforesable way that neither hindsight nor foresight predicts, it will happen. And I will be a very happy underling.