Can One Avoid Fate? Part 1

Can One Avoid Fate? Part 1
The three Greek Fates, who spin, draw out, and cut the thread of life. An engraving, 1558-9, by Giorgio Ghisi after Giulio Romano. Purchase: Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1917; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, PD-US
James Sale
Updated:
One of the most important components of our life as human beings is the feeling and the knowing that we have a purpose.

As cultural commentator David Brooks observes in his book “The Road to Character,” “A mature person possesses a settled unity of purpose.” But whether a sense of purpose is needed for maturity or not, philosopher Richard Smoley comments in his “Inner Christianity” that “Nearly everyone feels it at some point or another: Each of us has the sense, however faint, that there is some unique purpose for which we have been called into being and which no one else can fill.” Aside from anything else, this feeling that there is a purpose is characteristic of “high well-being,” as author Gail Sheehy said.

James Sale
James Sale
Author
James Sale has had over 50 books published, most recently, “Mapping Motivation for Top Performing Teams” (Routledge, 2021). He has been nominated for the 2022 poetry Pushcart Prize, and won first prize in The Society of Classical Poets 2017 annual competition, performing in New York in 2019. His most recent poetry collection is “StairWell.” For more information about the author, and about his Dante project, visit EnglishCantos.home.blog
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