Free Will or Destiny?

At first thought I would say I can’t believe in destiny. I can’t believe that people were destined to live terrible, terrible lives. What sort of God dooms people to a horrible future? What sort of God lets innocent babies to be born to crack-whores and allows other unspeakable things to happen. Yet I also can’t believe that people choose to be born into these situations! This question or issue, free will vs. destiny, is one mystery that I am unable to solve. I have to believe in almost a mixture of the two. It is hard to explain, but I’ll do my best. If I have to choose between the two options, I guess I have to believe that people are destined to be born into certain situations, good or bad. This reasoning wins by default, in a way, because as absurd as this sounds to me that God would do this, it is an even more absurd thought that people can somehow choose their circumstances of birth. Since I can’t fathom the latter, I have to believe the former. Yet after birth and when you can finally care for yourself, it is then that I believe that people have free will, and they have the power to choose.

 The book Jasmine, by Bharati Mukherjee, tells the story of the life of an Indian woman, Jasmine, born in a small farming village in Punjab, India. She decides to overcome a life that seems to be predetermined. She gets schooling, moves to America, and even changes her name, all situations almost unheard of for a typical Indian girl born into her exact circumstances. I do not think Jasmine is a puppet. She controls her own life. No, I would not say that she would have chosen to be born into the life she was born into- she had a poor childhood, with no toilets and no electricity- no one chooses that. I would say she was destined to be born into this situation. However, I believe she makes her own choices throughout the rest of her life. I do not think that she was destined to overcome the typical life that it was assumed she would live. I think she chose it.

 My main reason for thinking that she chooses what happens in her life is that as a child she was so defiant towards what people were saying she was destined to be. There are so many examples of this defiance. At the age of seven when an astrologer tells her future, she replies "No!...You’re a crazy old man. You don’t know what my future holds!" (Pg. 3). When her father asks her if she wants to continue school so that she can work in a bank and have a better life and not live the typical life of wifehood and motherhood, she replies, "No... I don’t want to be a steno. I don’t want to be a teller, either... I want to be a doctor, and set up my own clinic in a big town" (Pg. 51). She also knows that attitude is important. Her father spends his days lamenting how his life had changed and longing for the past. Jasmine knows that he was right to notice how his life changed, but she also knows that "...Only a fool would let it rule his life" (Pg. 43). Some may argue that she was born with this attitude, destined to have it, and her being defiant and the choices that evolve from that defiance are therefore destined. I would absolutely disagree. I’m a firm believer that people are in absolute control of their attitude, and with the right attitude, you can do anything you want.

Whether I am right or wrong on this question, I believe it’s very important to go about life believing that you have a choice, and that you make your own destiny! Whether Jasmine’s life was really predetermined or not, she still believes that she is in control, and that empowers her. How depressing would a life be if you felt you had no control, like you couldn’t make a difference in you own life. Whether my destiny is already determined or not, I will go on believing that I make my own choices, and that with the right attitude I can do anything. And with this attitude, I can do anything.