T Nation

Things Happen for a Reason!

Off Topic
#1

So I get this phone call, about 830, from a girlfriend of mine. She had received a call from her husband (who works offshore) who tells her that he’s having problems e-mailing her and she should go check her account. She’s tired (b/c she’s got a 2.5 y/o and a 3 week old at home) and argues…but decides to get on the computer anyway.

She begins to peruse Myspace.com afterwards, for the hell of it, and checks out one of her friends page. We’ll call him JOhn.

Now John is this single guy, one kid, small town, kinda screwed up life. Anyway, he decides to post a blog about how he’s tired of living, doesn’t like his life, is going to kill himself, and asks everyone to take care of his daughter.

My friend reads this, freaks out, and starts calling her friends. It’s 800 and he signed the blog off at 445 saying that he had just taken approximatley 65 prozac (I believe she told me flouxetine (s/p??) ).

No one is answering their phones, and he lives alone, with no phone in the house. My friend calls her sister, who gets her boyfriend to ride over there.

He gets to the house, beats down the dooor, and finds this guy laying on the floor foaming at the mouth.

As far as I know, EMS was called, and the guy is on his way to the hospital.

All I have to say is that if my friend hadn’t gotten that call from her husband, and hadn’t decided to be nosey on Myspace.com, they would be going to another funeral.

To say the least, she’s a little shaken up tonight!

I believe things happen for a reason…you?

#2

[quote]maryjane wrote:
I believe things happen for a reason…you?[/quote]

no.

#3

[quote]ballin wrote:
no.
[/quote]

well youre a huge asshole.

#4

[quote]rrjc5488 wrote:
ballin wrote:
no.

well youre a huge asshole.[/quote]

You couldnt tell that when he said that finding out our PI has HIV made his day?

#5

[quote]rrjc5488 wrote:
ballin wrote:
no.

well youre a huge asshole.[/quote]

good for them saving him, but i don’t believe it was SUPPOSED to happen. how am i an ass?

#6

Some things might happen for a reason, but
some people try to stack odds in their favor that they will. Like by posting a suicide note on a website with millions of members.

I feel badly for his daughter, and I hope she’s getting the care she needs.

I also hope your friend is not too shaken by everything.

#7

I could’nt agree with you more

#8

I’ve ALWAYS believed all things happen for a reason. Some are more apparent than others. To those that don’t believe, try looking a little harder - or just don’t believe. I could care less.

#9

[quote]wressler125 wrote:
rrjc5488 wrote:
ballin wrote:
no.

well youre a huge asshole.

You couldnt tell that when he said that finding out our PI has HIV made his day?[/quote]

whats a PI? and i didnt really mean it like that. sorry if i offended anyone. which i know i did. im just kinda pissed off today.

#10

No, I don’t believe things happen for a reason. I believe we remember the times that they do, and never the times that they don’t. And how can it be any other way? It’s impossible to tell if something DIDN’T happen for a reason.

#11

[quote]ballin wrote:
whats a PI? [/quote]

Powerful Image. That pic over on the left.

#12

For everyone who gets saved another dies. You could go as far as saying that some people are saved so that others will die. I believe that people do things for a reason; but does fate interevene at times…nah, it’s just coincidence.

Don’t get me wrong sometimes it seems that way, and I hope things work out. How do you know he was’nt supposed to die for a reason, maybe so his daughter would be landed in proper care, instead of with a suicidal father. There are too many holes. besides I don’t believe anyone or anyTHING has a say in what happens in my life.

#13

"As you think, so you become. Avoid superstitiously investing events with power or meanings they don’t have. Keep your head. Our busy minds are forever jumping to conclusions, manufacturing and interpreting signs that aren’t there.

Assume, instead, that everthing that happens to you does so for some good. that if you decided to be lucky, you are lucky. All events contain an advantage for you–if you look for it!"
- Epictetus (interpretation by Sharon Lebell in The Art Of Living)

#14

Absolutely things happen for a reason. The universe is not chaotic. God is sovereign and completely in control. His plan for humanity has been unfolding since the beginning of creation. His plan is not a man-centred plan though; it is all for the sake of His glory.

Don’t make the mistake of looking at injustice and concluding that God must not be in control. The Lord has not brought His judgement on this earth yet, but He has promised a day of judgement when each person will have to stand before Him and give an answer for everything they have done, and then justice will be served.

#15

I believe that things happen.

That is about it.

Actually, I believe that the things that happen are a direct result of the decisions and attitudes of the people involved in the situation and there is no external control or reason at all.

I believe that is the way it is, and I believe that is the way it should be.

#16

For everyone who’s saved by chance, another is doomed by it. Terrible things happen to good people, and nothing positive comes of it, for them or anyone else. If you credit some universal master plan for saving one man from death, then to be fair you must blame that plan for all the horrors of life.

#17

about half a year ago i was really tired and went to bed SUPER early, and woke up 3 hours later around 11 pm…i needed to pee but for some reason instead of using the bathroom next to my room i felt like using the one way on the other side of the house, the one that has a window that faces the street…so i’m doing my business(still half asleep), and i hear what sounds like a car alarm and faint screaming

so i quickly walk outside but all i see is a car across the street honking at someone inside that house…so i walk back in, but now i REALLY hear screaming, so i RUN outside and see the lady that was inside the car going bonkers and two of my neighbors trying to help her pry open the garage door to who i now know is her son’s house…

i get there, we pull the door open and find her son’s Suburban running, him sitting in the drivers seat basically dead, and the garage full of fumes…run up grab him from underneath his arms, pull him out, one of the other neighbors grabs his feet and we carry him out and lay him on the driveway 'til the paramedics show up…i swore i was carrying a dead man…he had called his mom earlier to say good bye…

he’s doing better and is even dating now…

i never see him park inside the garage anymore…

#18

Humans look for patterns in everything because it helps us figure things out. A problem of this is that we’re able to find patterns in things that aren’t really related at all. This is where coincidence comes in and the whole “it happened for a reason”.

Just because some (apparently) unlikely events happened to lead to something strange doesnt make it fate. It makes it coincidence.

By the same reasoning, you’d have to assume EVERYTHING happens to a strict pattern as everything can influence everything else. And by that reasoning, no one really does anything of their own free will because they’re always being affected by external forces. Therefore, your life is already mapped out for you and you have no control.

#19

There’s a book called ‘Why Bad Things Happen to Good People.’ Written by a religious man. I haven’t read it yet, but I heard it’s worth reading.

#20

“Gentlemen, fate and coincidence figure largely in our lives.”
–Dale Cooper, “Twin Peaks”

I claim that every major life change (choice of schools, career changes, my marriage) in the last 30+ years of my life has resulted from a concatenation of forces coming together at the right time and the right place to offer me the right choice–none of which has ever led to disaster.

But then, daily life IS full of screw-ups and stupid mistakes; my life isn’t exactly “charmed.” It’s just the big things that always happen just right for me. Odd. I also recognize in myself the tendency to find patterns and symbolic events, so maybe I’m just projecting an order onto the universe that I just WISH existed.

To borrow from George Carlin: “Could be meat; could be cake.”