I've been watching an anime with a repeated line:
"There is no such thing as coincidence, only inevitability."
Tonight, as I was watching an episode of this series, my mother, a home-health nurse, made a call to a caretaker of one of her clients. Now pay attention: she saw this client yesterday and had left instructions with the caretaker to aid in some discomfort the client was having. Earlier today, she accidentally called them, and hung up. The caretaker called back, and she missed the call. The call she made while I was watching this show was intended to be an apology for the pocket-dial, but instead, she found out that the caretaker didn't follow the instruction she had left, and the client was still uncomfortable.
At first, I thought, "That worked out perfectly." Then I realized it was a little too perfect, like Fate herself decided to dip her finger into the mess and put the ducks in a row.
So is there a such thing as coincidence, or does every chance we get have a purpose?
![[-]](https://gayspeak.com/images/duende_v3_local/collapse.png)
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I see life as more of a "wave" that one surfs as best one can, but it's mostly what happens to you and how you react to it.
Of course maybe I just don't have a "big enough view" but if so, and it's really that much under control, then that's actually a very disturbing thought if you think about it as similar accidents lead to tragedy and even bloody history. One of the worst things I can think of offhand that's easily explained was how some idiot wanted to "send a message" against a drug dealer harassing him by shooting into his window from outside and driving away (like I said, he was an idiot, and I'd say that even if he managed to have gotten the right house). Unfortunately, it was the wrong house. Even so, no one would've been shot SAVE AT THAT EXACT MOMENT a little girl stood up to blow out the candles on her birthday cake and thus a bullet that would've missed her a few seconds earlier or later got her in the back of the head (Houston was screaming for blood on that when an alert went out to try and find the guy who did it, being very young myself I only recall they did catch him but not what happened).
Then one wonders, are those who die of plague, accident, a mass murder an inevitability similar to the call your mother got? Are these inevitable events of various powers or One Power? Did they die for some greater purpose or because something went wrong or was in a bad mood? And if say Hitler, Stalin, Jim Jones, etc didn't get killed this way then what about those who were? Were they even worse? Or were we better off with Hitler? Or are these powers or whatever malevolent? And if so, then did helping a client who was uncomfortable start a butterfly effect that will cause misery later on as a result?
As I say, it's disturbing to think about, IMO.
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But I will share 2 very puzzling incidents in my life:
1. I was stoned with several friends when we went to pick someone up for a party. He wasn't there but we (being VERY stoned) just walked into his home and room and started listening to his music waiting for him to show up. His phone rang and I, being stoned, answered it. It turned out to be the guy we were supposed to pick up and he was only a few blocks from the party we were supposed to take him to (in another town) but still needed us to pick him up as some cops were actively looking for him. I said we were on the way and then, finally realizing what was troubling me about this, I asked, "Dude, how did you know to call us here in your own room?"
"I don't know."
At least it wasn't out of our way to pick him up for the party. 
2. I've only had one definitive precognitive dream (not counting symbolic). Yet with all the major events in my life this was something completely insignificant: me feeding a homeless cat (actually temporarily abandoned while owners were on vacation as I found out later). In the dream I left the library on Christmas and went home (passing the Catholic Church all lit up) and feeding the cat nearby, and in real life the dream happened ALMOST EXACTLY the same way (down to the cat being orange), save that it was Easter, not Christmas, and I didn't leave the library I passed it (and it was closed) coming home from the store.
I have no idea why I had the discrepancy (perhaps the precognitive bit was attached to an actual dream and Easter/Christmas was an honest mistake?) or why if I was going to dream of a future incident in such clarity it would be something as pointless and mundane as that (even if I hadn't dreamed it I'd have still fed the cat anyway). :confused:
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Focusing on Death is not a very good example, though. Death is inevitable for everyone.
The shooter after the drug dealer fascinates me, though, beginning with the little girl's birthday. If she had been born at 11:45 on the date before, she would have blown out the candles 24hrs earlier, to say nothing of her parent's choice to move into that house in particular, or the shooter's choice of which window to shoot out. If it wasn't inevitable, why did no one stop her parents from moving into that house, or stop the shooter from loading his gun? I'm not saying it's compulsory, that we are forced into making decisions that lead to a predetermined outcome, but after an event has occurred, even a tragedy or a happy accident, no one or anything would have been able to stop it.
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I believe in coincidence. Also, xxxholic is pretty cool 
If every chance we took had some kind of purpose or if coincidence is an illusion, wouldn't that mean you'd more or less be forced to accept fatalism? I'd never do such a thing, it would make living seem almost pointless in my eyes.
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Now, why would it be pointless? You still make the choices you decide to make.
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Ok, can you explain how this would work? Is this supposed to be some form of low grade, subtle telepathy at work that caused the mix up or what?
Because discomfort is as much an inevitability as death so I'm not sure what you're going by here. And mix ups like what you describe lead to all sorts of inconveniences as well, though I don't want to list any if they're going to seemingly "not count." What are the parameters of what counts and what is to be ignored?
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"There's no such thing as coincidence, only inevitability".
My own interpretation of that sentence is that she's talking about fate. It's been a while since I watched the show but I do remember Yuki (that's her name I think) bringing the topic of pre-determination up a lot. If certain outcomes were inevitable and things actually were pre-determined I would kind of lose my will to live since the concept of destiny would indirectly kill free will.
The sentence could be seen in other ways though, but that's how I view it
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Pix Wrote:Ok, can you explain how this would work? Is this supposed to be some form of low grade, subtle telepathy at work that caused the mix up or what?
Because discomfort is as much an inevitability as death so I'm not sure what you're going by here. And mix ups like what you describe lead to all sorts of inconveniences as well, though I don't want to list any if they're going to seemingly "not count." What are the parameters of what counts and what is to be ignored?
Why don't we discuss the circumstances of Death, specifically? That makes Death a control for the debate. (and yes, I think I understand you better than I an voicing myself)
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SolemnBoy Wrote:"There's no such thing as coincidence, only inevitability".
My own interpretation of that sentence is that she's talking about fate. It's been a while since I watched the show but I do remember Yuki (that's her name I think) bringing the topic of pre-determination up a lot. If certain outcomes were inevitable and things actually were pre-determined I would kind of lose my will to live since the concept of destiny would indirectly kill free will.
The sentence could be seen in other ways though, but that's how I view it
That's odd; I only ever hear Yuko talk about the impact of decisions people make on their own lives. Yes, she's very adept at understanding human reactions, but she doesn't seem to think they are propelled by an unseen force.
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Inevitability vs. Coincidence
