Born Under Different Stars

Each one of us is born under different stars. From me born here to you born there, the stars align for each of us differently. To tell you how blessed or cursed you are, you have to walk your path, and your attitude matters here. 

Contemplating our place in the universe isn’t new. Cosmology gives us astronomy and the people who dedicate their lives to understanding our universe and beyond.

The natural world is also affected by the placement of the stars, the planets, and the moon. Stars trail from the equator and the southern hemisphere. Your place in the world determines what you see and how you see it. We are all unique: star fingerprints, each mirroring the cosmos. The stars are seemingly fixed in place, but the planets move and our Earth moves with them through time and space.

A look at the stars brings us to astrology, where the placement of celestial bodies is said to yield a map of how our life will unfold. The stars influence human affairs just as much as your personality and each one of us can say we are born under different stars, and that is simply our fate.

What about the irony of fate, where the outcome implies some sort of artistic measure of the universe. There’s the twist of fate, where the outcome can be good or bad. Then there’s a fickle fate which should be the fucking deadly hand of fickle fate. I relate to this most poignantly. How the universe shines upon some random soul, you will never know. But you will know when fate cracks through the air like so many whips that have hurt wild horses.

How you relate to Fate shows your level of optimism. Isn’t acceptance when you come to terms with your fate? And isn’t ingenuity the denial of one’s fate as final?

My friend, Jon, wonders about the difference between fate and destiny. “Fate is what life gives you. Destiny is what you do with what life gives you. People can leave their lives to fate or be inspired by a sense of destiny.” Are you at the mercy of fate or do you follow the path of destiny?

What is my Destiny, I ask? And all I can think of is me made of starlight mirroring the constellations. A time beyond this life. Death. That’s the ultimate destiny, isn’t it? It is hard for me to imagine a destiny as a greater, final completion of my life. Maybe a book?

I don’t turn outside myself to change my stars, like literally, go outside, look at the stars, and think about my place in this vast, marvelous universe. I am afraid of the dark now. I act out in weird ways instead, like hanging out at RiteAid when I need some kind of spiritual intervention.

I’ve always thought that Fate has two faces: if you look upon her favorably when you first see her, Fate is beautiful, but because Fate is, more often than not, tragic for many people, perhaps they turn in fear, and Fate is scary. Fate is not unkind, though. In the end, there is death. 

Unless it is a fate worse than death.

How humble I stand, knowing my place in the world.