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Jan. 31st, 2002 10:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfgrove"So what I want to hear from you students is whether or not you believe destiny can be changed and why," the psychology teacher asked of his class as he turned from the board at the front of the room, making a dramatic sweeping gesture across the room as he did so. Hopefully inviting answers. New ones. He never heard new ways of looking at the question, but he enjoyed bringing them invariably to one answer, they didn't know. They did not know everything.
Several students looked away, hoping not to be called on while others slipped into thought, chewing on their fingernails or pens distractedly. He waited for the first hand to go up. After a moment, a confident young man raised his hand, an all-knowing smile on his lips. The teacher returned a knowledgeable smile and nodded to the boy to speak. The boy thought he was looking for a pre-determined answer, that there was a right or wrong involved.
The boy stood up proudly flashing a flirtatious smile at one of the girls that turned around to watch him speak. "O'course you can't change destiny, otherwise it wouldn't be destiny." He looked ridiculously smug.
The teacher smiled. So it begins. "An excellent point," He turned, pointing to a small girl with thick-rimmed glasses and an annoyed look on her face. She had halfway raised her hand, not really wanting the attention. "What do you think miss?"
"Well," she began in a timid but calculatedly logical voice. She stood turning toward the first boy, pushing her glasses slightly up the bridge of her nose as she narrowed her eyes at him. "Despite your opinion, you cannot be correct. By the very fact that people have free will, that we can think and act for ourselves, proves tat destiny can be altered. That is, if it exists at all."
"Well put young lady." The teacher stepped in before the boy decided to try rebuking the girl. He glanced up at the girl in the back of the class who had half-raised her hand, and stared only at her desk. "Do you have something to add?"
She stood, still looking at her desk, blondish-brown hair shadowing her face. "Destiny is real," she spoke with a hollow voice. "Destiny can be changed, and yet it cannot be. Destiny can be avoided, and even altered, but only for a finite amount of time. For even then, perhaps the delay itself was destined to occur. And one's destiny follows from lifetime to lifetime, existence to existence, until an end is found. Assuming there is an end. Sometimes it may be destiny to repeat destiny for eternity, and then, what is destined to happen, happens sooner or later. Because altering destiny creates a new destiny and we cannot avoid existence."
The teacher was a little surprised, most people took a side or ceded to not knowing. She hadn't given an answer that really went one way or another, but there was an assured knowledge in her voice, like there was a clear answer in her words. Was there? "Do you believe destiny can or cannot be changed?" He wanted a clearer answer. Her reply was irritating him.
"It can, and it cannot," she spoke absent-mindedly, like something more important and far away had caught her attention. "Partially it depends on destiny, and partially on the will of the destined."
The bell rang, abruptly ending class. The students gathered their books, excited as normal, but the professor was sure he had given thirty minutes for the discussion, where had the time gone?
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Heh. wrote that a long time ago. Seems pretty dumb now. *returns to rifling through old stories.*
Several students looked away, hoping not to be called on while others slipped into thought, chewing on their fingernails or pens distractedly. He waited for the first hand to go up. After a moment, a confident young man raised his hand, an all-knowing smile on his lips. The teacher returned a knowledgeable smile and nodded to the boy to speak. The boy thought he was looking for a pre-determined answer, that there was a right or wrong involved.
The boy stood up proudly flashing a flirtatious smile at one of the girls that turned around to watch him speak. "O'course you can't change destiny, otherwise it wouldn't be destiny." He looked ridiculously smug.
The teacher smiled. So it begins. "An excellent point," He turned, pointing to a small girl with thick-rimmed glasses and an annoyed look on her face. She had halfway raised her hand, not really wanting the attention. "What do you think miss?"
"Well," she began in a timid but calculatedly logical voice. She stood turning toward the first boy, pushing her glasses slightly up the bridge of her nose as she narrowed her eyes at him. "Despite your opinion, you cannot be correct. By the very fact that people have free will, that we can think and act for ourselves, proves tat destiny can be altered. That is, if it exists at all."
"Well put young lady." The teacher stepped in before the boy decided to try rebuking the girl. He glanced up at the girl in the back of the class who had half-raised her hand, and stared only at her desk. "Do you have something to add?"
She stood, still looking at her desk, blondish-brown hair shadowing her face. "Destiny is real," she spoke with a hollow voice. "Destiny can be changed, and yet it cannot be. Destiny can be avoided, and even altered, but only for a finite amount of time. For even then, perhaps the delay itself was destined to occur. And one's destiny follows from lifetime to lifetime, existence to existence, until an end is found. Assuming there is an end. Sometimes it may be destiny to repeat destiny for eternity, and then, what is destined to happen, happens sooner or later. Because altering destiny creates a new destiny and we cannot avoid existence."
The teacher was a little surprised, most people took a side or ceded to not knowing. She hadn't given an answer that really went one way or another, but there was an assured knowledge in her voice, like there was a clear answer in her words. Was there? "Do you believe destiny can or cannot be changed?" He wanted a clearer answer. Her reply was irritating him.
"It can, and it cannot," she spoke absent-mindedly, like something more important and far away had caught her attention. "Partially it depends on destiny, and partially on the will of the destined."
The bell rang, abruptly ending class. The students gathered their books, excited as normal, but the professor was sure he had given thirty minutes for the discussion, where had the time gone?
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Heh. wrote that a long time ago. Seems pretty dumb now. *returns to rifling through old stories.*
