The Philosophy of a Cookie

I stopped to get Chinese take-out tonight and indulged in my favorite Chinese food past time - the fortune cookie.

I love opening a fortune cookie, for during that split second in which the cookie cracks, I feel a glimmer of optimism. What will my fortune be? Will it be accurate? Will it be positive? One time I received one that said, "You love Chinese food." Rather than be let down by the obvious, I laughed and kept it in my wallet, showing it to people for a laugh. But the real reason I enjoy fortune cookies is that I like to think that fortune cookies offer even the most dour individuals a sudden surge of hope. Even fortune tellers offer hope? Have you ever seen someone go to a fortune teller to ask for bad news? I'm sure that's a rareity.

Today, I was not let down. The small paper in the midst of yummy cookie reads, "A new chapter in your life is being written."

That one fortune started a new thought process. Who is in charge of our lives? An old addage says that people are the authors of their own lives. I like to believe that. I like to look at twists and turns, ups and downs as chapters; as the lives of our parents a prologue; as our funerals and deaths an epilogue. As a wanna-be writer myself, I started to wonder, then, what are the plot points of MY life? If I die tomorrow, what was the climax? Could I classify the chapters in my life as people or places or experiences or years?

Then I started thinking: are we really the authors of our own lives? As an English teacher, I teach not only concepts of reading and writing, but themes in literature. I themes such as right vs. wrong, good vs. evil, a person coming of age, difficult conflicts to overcome, and, at times, Fate.

Dictionary.com contains multiple defintions of the word Fate, but they all have a reoccurring theme: that which is predetermined. Believers in Fate believe that their actions have already been decided for them and that they can't change things. Disbelievers in Fate believe that they choose their own paths, that nothing is unavoidable and that everything can be changed. One of the reasons that England's King Charles was disliked was that he believed in pre-Destination, a thinking that differed from the Puritans helped lead to his demise and eventual beheading. Charles Dickens might have believed in fate when he created Madame Defarge, the evil female in "A Tale of Two Cities" who knitted the names of those that were to be chosen to die by the guillotine (before they even knew it themselves). Even Shakespeare felt some inkling of fate and predestination when he wrote "Romeo and Juliet", for he called them "star-crossed lovers" and Romeo even shouts out "Oh, I am Fortune's fool!" after he plunges a sword through the snitty and murderous Tybalt, the much-loved cousin of his secret wife.

I, personally, lean towards Fate and Fortune. Several times I've tried to make my own Fate and Fortune, but was disappointed. A person can only do so much before she realizes her efforts are pointless and she must give up (especially when other people are involved). As much as I want something, someone else could rip that hope and dream away from me. I then have to look on it as Fate, for there is no way I can change the mind of someone who is as equally determined as I am, although equally determined in the opposite direction. And then if something bad happens, then something usually good comes from it. Maybe I wasn't meant to PR, for example, at the Houston half-marathon. Maybe Fate has it in store for me to rest for a while, recharge and mentally recommit, and then go on stronger.

I am starting to believe that there are no coincidences in life, that everything is meant for a reason. If something is meant to be, it will be. I still have my hopes, I still have my dreams, and I still have faith in some things that seem impossible, but I can wait. For if it is meant to be, it will happen. And if it doesn't, then something just as good will come in its stead.

And as for the fortune cookies, which are mass-produced... well, maybe I was meant to get those fortunes. Maybe we're meant to make changes that those fortune cookies recommend (unless it says "You love Chinese food").

My only concern right now is this: I accidentally tore my fortune. Hopefully that doesn't make the fortune null and void.

Cheers!