Marie Taylor, Ink

Marie Taylor

4 min read

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Just now

I was reading a science fiction book the other day in which the hero finds the ancient artifact that gives him a glimpse into his own future. Our hero is happy to discover he will live to a ripe old age, be admired and respected by others, and die surrounded by his many loved ones. What a great future! I thought to myself — one that I would sure like to have.

Anyway, this belief in his future gives the hero great courage and a trust in himself that he hadn’t had before. He plunges fearlessly into all sorts of dangerous adventures because a long and successful life had been assured.

Eventually, he finds himself in a life or death situation and is caught between two plans of action. Which should he do? Then he remembers the prediction. The future the ancient artifact had presented to him was not the future that ‘would be’ but the future that ‘could be.’

His understanding of the prophecy changed in an instant. There was No Guarantee. The future he had been acting on was not a certainty, only a probability, or perhaps, only a possibility. Since his rosy future was not guaranteed, his hero’s courage wavered and fear took up residence in his heart.

Before this revelation, the hero would plunge blithely forward — the Fool, the Innocent — but he now felt compelled to analyze situations, to weigh and balance options. Before he made no plans and set no goals because the future was auspicious no matter what he did. He now began to devise tactics and set strategies to manifest the future he desired. Instead of living in Faith, he began to live in Fear.

How much control do we have over our lives? How much power do we have to influence outcomes, achieve goals, to determine our futures? Is it better to live in Faith or in Hope? Or, do we listen to our common sense and experience and live in Fear?

Years ago, the book titled “The Secret” was a sensation. As I understood it, if you desired something hard enough, if you affirmed strongly enough, if you believed deeply enough, if you prayed hard enough, you could have it. Just look at the lives the authors were living!

If you set goals, met deadlines, uncovered subconscious assumptions; if you stop eating meat, did yoga and meditated, rode a bicycle and saved energy; if you recycled, championed peace and human rights, you would become spiritually worthy of all good things — and all good things would magically come to you — because you wanted them, because you deserved them, because you believed!

In other words, if you played the spiritual game according to the rules, you would be safe, happy, healthy, loved, and let’s not forget rich. The vision you had in your personal ancient artifact would come true. Your ‘could be’ would definitely become a ‘will be.’

But real life doesn’t exist in a world of Newtonian physics. Causality is not the ultimate arbiter of destiny. Goals, deadlines, affirmations, belief systems don’t work with that level of certainty and predictability.

Just ask the vegetarians who developed cancer, the yoga expert who had a heart attack, the ‘good’ people who suffered economic or emotional devastation. Just ask the Jobs of this world. Not everybody gets what they deserve. In fact, the opposite often seems true.

This life is not a rose garden and it is naïve to believe playing by the rules will necessarily get you what you want. Life is not an academic course that comes with a text book and midterm exams; nor does it come with a roadmap with carefully marked rest stops and Michelin stars.

Maybe it would be more correct to say that life is a Fun House at the carnival, filled with unexpected twists and turns, a bumpy ride with the occasional bogeyman jumping out, a hall of mirrors in which reality has many dimensions.

Maybe life is just an adventure to be lived, rather than a lesson to be learned or a trophy to be won. Maybe life is an experience in which hope is not needed, and is, in fact, a place where hope keeps us from experience by placing the emphasis on the destination rather than the journey.

So I say, give up hope and deadlines and goals and achievements. If you must have a vision, see yourself in total surrender to what life brings; that way all decisions and stresses and indeterminations are set aside, along with worry and suffering. All is meant to be exactly as it is; we are all doing the very best we can right now. We are all part of the Great Game in which no one wins or loses, a game that does not keep score.