In the first couple chapters of The End of Your Life Book Club. We are introduced to Mary Anne Schwable, the mother of the author Will Schwable. Mary Anne has just returned from a missionary trip to Afghanistan where she is working to build a library. When she first returns and becomes ill doctors assume for several months that she has jaundice before diagnosing her with pancreatic cancer. Mother and son are both avid readers and often discuss various book each is reading. The first one we are introduced to is Appointment in Samarra. Even before her cancer diagnosis Mary Anne encourages her son to read this book she tells him, “It’s a book about setting things in motion and then being too proud or stubborn to apologize and to change course. It’s about thinking that being raised a certain way gives you the right to behave badly” (21). Schwable’s summary of the book tells the reader that a young wealthy man makes a serious of poor choices which lead to him “losing everything” in a matter of days. As mother and son discuss the book, they ask each other about the role of fate in a person’s life versus the role of free-will.
This is one of my favorite topics to think about. I am a believer that we create our own destiny and that for the most part a person can do or become anything he or she chooses if he works hard enough for it. There are many things I have accomplished in my life that I credit to making a plan and following the plan whether it be completing a marathon or completing my master’s degree, I have always believed that I accomplished these things because of my free will and not because I was fated to. I wasn’t smarter than the person next to me. I’m not a natural athlete. I simply worked hard. At least, that’s what I believe.
Last night I happened across a news article that claims differently. Moni Basu on CNN reports in her article, “Black German Woman Learns a Shocking Family Secret: Her Grandfather was a Nazi.” In this article the reader is introduced to Jennifer Teege. She was abandoned at a Convent as an infant, grew up as the only black child in her neighborhood, then spent time studying in Tel Aviv” She accidently discovered her grandfather was the notorious Nazi depicted in the movie, Schindler’s List. She believes it was her fate too have lived in Israel, to accidently discover this book, and then to become an author and speaker about the psychological effects of the Holocaust on succeeding generations. She doesn’t give the events any of the free-will credit that I give to my life.
Thinking about this idea of fate versus free will, do you believe that you are destined to become or do certain things? Do believe that you can do or become anything you wish? What limitations do you place on these ideas? Can you only accomplish certain things and the rest is up to fate? Or is everything up to fate? On what do you base these ideas?
Basu, Moni. “Black German woman learns a shocking family secret: Her grandfather was a Nazi” CNN Jan. 29, 2016 onlinehttp://www.cnn.com/2016/01/29/world/my-grandfather-would-have-shot-me/index.html
This is one of my favorite topics to think about. I am a believer that we create our own destiny and that for the most part a person can do or become anything he or she chooses if he works hard enough for it. There are many things I have accomplished in my life that I credit to making a plan and following the plan whether it be completing a marathon or completing my master’s degree, I have always believed that I accomplished these things because of my free will and not because I was fated to. I wasn’t smarter than the person next to me. I’m not a natural athlete. I simply worked hard. At least, that’s what I believe.
Last night I happened across a news article that claims differently. Moni Basu on CNN reports in her article, “Black German Woman Learns a Shocking Family Secret: Her Grandfather was a Nazi.” In this article the reader is introduced to Jennifer Teege. She was abandoned at a Convent as an infant, grew up as the only black child in her neighborhood, then spent time studying in Tel Aviv” She accidently discovered her grandfather was the notorious Nazi depicted in the movie, Schindler’s List. She believes it was her fate too have lived in Israel, to accidently discover this book, and then to become an author and speaker about the psychological effects of the Holocaust on succeeding generations. She doesn’t give the events any of the free-will credit that I give to my life.
Thinking about this idea of fate versus free will, do you believe that you are destined to become or do certain things? Do believe that you can do or become anything you wish? What limitations do you place on these ideas? Can you only accomplish certain things and the rest is up to fate? Or is everything up to fate? On what do you base these ideas?
Basu, Moni. “Black German woman learns a shocking family secret: Her grandfather was a Nazi” CNN Jan. 29, 2016 onlinehttp://www.cnn.com/2016/01/29/world/my-grandfather-would-have-shot-me/index.html