Sunday, January 1, 2012

Fate vs. Free Will

For eons, the entire universe has been swirling in circles over this whole fate vs. free will business. Nothing ever gets settled, time keeps a-wastin’ and no one can get a restful night’s sleep for all the frettin'. Well, it’s time for a decision!  It’s time We, the People, petition Mr./Mrs./Ms. God(s) to make up his/her/their/its' wafflin’ mind or, if he/she/them/it can’t do that, give us permission to put it to a vote so we know who is in charge before this whole granite planet falls apart.


Urgent Update: 
To the challenge of the above conundrum,  Friend Lea opined as follows: "The longer I've lived the less engaging I find philosophical debate. "What's the point" exactly! And to add metal to the kettle, if we are a hologram from another dimension, then really, why make mention?"

Friend Robyn responded,"I think it's fate that gave us free will!! how's that for playing both sides of the coin?! hehheh" (Editor's note; as if this was the time for chuckles).

Friend (and actual namesake), Harold Levine (of the Houston, Texas Levine's) weighed in noting, "That is heavy". (Emphasis supplied) (why of course it is, Harold. That's why it's called fliporfloporlossyasee! 

Inundated by infidels on all sides, I replied in the only way the design of my own nature, destiny and those cold clear streams of logic that periodically rise as easily dismissed impulses within one's own brain commanded and chose the following as my reply:

 "Harold Levine, my very own namesake (or vice versa!) Given your soul- searching comment, I conclude that your own philosophy is derived through weighing the earth’s density as a multiple granualarity of ever spinning hilarity and to that I say, more’s the Pitney". 


Next, I attempted a swift dispatch of those flighty non-believers, Lea and Robyn, by revealing that they had, after a fashion, chosen to "cast their fate to the wind" and, as the world prepared to take another spin, I hurled a defiant, "away we go!" into the uncaring air.


BUT NO!! 


(Sotto voce): There are, in this world, those individuals who are simply incapable of permitting a high falutin' intellectual discussion to proceed apace without reducing it to the level of a flatulent whoopie cushion). 

And so it was when Lea provided the opening by noting the juxtaposition of, as she put it, "Carel Werber* AND Jackie Gleason. Interesting~~" (as if it really was), I sat comfortably upon the windy throne.

Yes, ever eager to devour the carrion of a sound metaphysical argument, I crowed: 

"I like to confuse famous celebs as much as the next bottle tosser, but seating Carel Werber at the same table as The Great One would be to besmirch his besotted memory. Of course, there is also the possibility that seating Vince Guaraldi at that very same table would reduce all pretense of artistry to a handful of Peanuts. I mean to be serious, can any trivial melody fated to be cast to the capricious winds ever hope to hold a candle to a Melancholy Serenade? I think not at all."

As a point of disputably vital information, prior to transcribing and memorializing these thoughts with the intention of preserving them for and inflicting them upon humanity, I had no idea on earth who Carel Werber is (was?) I still don't know much, but I do believe that if free will holds sway, she, Vince and I have shared our last roundelay. 

* If ya gotta know, Carel Werber wrote the lyrics to Vince Guaraldi's composition, "Cast Your Fate to the Wind". Vince also wrote the music that accompanied the original Peanuts cartoons.  Now, shall we all pretend that it was never pre-ordained that we know that? 

On the other side of the scare, however, The Fat Man, endures and the debate rages on. Awaaay we go!





1 comment:

Anonymous said...

what a pleasant parade of palavering prose ! Really a fun and interesting read.