I noticed a couple of thoughts about Destiny lately, and as usual I am inspired by my fellow writers...and with good reason.

Star Wars is one of those experiences that sooner or later make us ask all sorts of questions. Typically, those questions are about what you believe in.

Can one person really make a difference? What is the real the nature of humanity? Is evil really always evil? Is good really good? Is there is an afterlife? What powers do we have locked away? Does black look good on me? Does this armor make my tuckus look fat? What rhymes with Bossk? If an Ewok falls in the woods and there's no one around...anyway you get the point. Questions abound, answers aren't always so easy to produce.

One such question is basic to the human experience, but important:

Do we decide our own Destiny, or are we predestined by some greater Plan?

Lots of us firmly assert our skepticism. There's some merit to believing we direct our own lives, and we have the power to put ourselves in exactly the good or bad places we find ourselves in. It certainly promotes personal responsibility to think this way. Still, some of us let go of these things to end up where life takes them. "Good things come to those who wait" or "Nice things happen to nice people". I would wager that many of the same people that say "I don't believe in Fate" have at least once said "If it was meant to be, then it will be..."

Long and short of it, there are three types of people, and three different answers:

Type #1- People who trust only in themselves
Type #2- People who trust in some Plan
Type #3- People who believe that there's a little of both going on out there.

I happen to believe Type #3, the "Faithful Skeptics", comprise a vast majority of people in the middle between Hope and Will.

Case in point...

A couple of years ago (almost exactly 2 years ago, in fact) I helped a friend of mine purchase a brand new car. Well, I didn't help with the purchase part, I just made sure no one bought that stupid rust undercoating and the pinstripe decals that cost $250.

After a couple of hours of haggling and signing and floormats and whatnots, we took to the road in her brand new Honda. One of the first things I told her was something I learned from experience: "Be careful. This is a brand new car. You're not used to it. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people buy brand new cars and wreck them the same day." She concurred, and reassured me that she was going to take care of her shiny new investment. She's a capable driver. And so we left the parking lot. It started to rain.

We went through the glossy evening streets of Dallas, never breaking the speed limit. We had brand new tires, a reasonable little suspension, and nifty ABS brakes. Armed with caution and reliable machinery, we were doing pretty good.

We reached a particular intersection in a bustling North Dallas suburb, in the heart of various converging bar and restaurant strips. The rain had let up a little, but it still pattered fat drops on the windshield. We made a left turn on the appropriately legal and comforting green arrow light.

Halfway through the well-lit intersection, I caught my first glimpse of trouble. Being on the passenger side (the right side for you lefties of the world) I was closest to it, so it was hard to miss: a dim pair of headlines breaking from the flush formation of stopped cars. They were slow-moving, not really indicative of peril, but then again, peril rarely announces itself with absolute clarity. They got closer, and I then realized they were neither slowing nor veering, I had just enough time to say "You have GOT to be f-"

Not the most useful of warnings, I'll give you that. But, as the George is my witness, there was nothing to prevent a meeting of metal. There was a lateral rush of inertia, a gut-wrenching crumpling noise, the feeling of the arm-rest caving in ever so slightly against my side, tires squealing, and my head going "thoink" against the side window as I stared now suddenly into a very intimate set of headlights.

Fifteen minutes after leaving the lot in a brand new Honda, we had been t-boned by someone's aged dogsled masquerading as an automobile. To our astonishment, he (she?) backed up, headlights dangling, extracted the car from our 2004 Dent LX, whipped around us and left the scene. I resumed my previously interrupted sentence.

Looking on the bright side, we were none the worse, save one jacked up car. My door even opened, and there was no broken glass, no airbag deployed. Those Japanese guys can make a car, lemme tellya. Replaying the whole incident in my mind as we made for the side of the road, I deduced this guy rolled through a red light at about 30 mph or so. Hard enough for a good smack, soft enough to call it playful if cars were throw pillows. Which they ain't.

In the days that followed, as we went through the embarrassing ordeal of explaining to the dealership what had happened, something I half-remembered piqued my curiosity about that intersection, so I did a little digging. Turns out that intersection is one of 10 most dangerous intersections in the nation, according to a major insurance company (actually, I believe in the top 3 that year in terms of number of accidents). In the NATION. I mean, this is the United Freakin' States. You know how many intersections there are here?

So I started adding up the rest of the circumstances:

It was raining.

We were crossing one of the worst intersections in the nation.

It was night time.

Oh yeah, and I forgot. It was Mardi Gras night.

And that intersection has a bar on every corner.

You could say there was no way that accident wasn't going to happen. But there were ways. We just missed our unknown opportunities - arriving a few seconds before or after, picking a different route, perhaps looking more carefully...

There's a saying: "If If's were Fifths we'd all be Drunk". The snockered doofus that smacked a brand new Honda sure was. Luckily for us, we walked away unscathed, and the next day thanks to some other good fortunes, she drove off in another new car. So maybe we dodged a bullet while being hit by one.

But there's another word that's gives rise to questions - Luck. Luck, like Fate, or Destiny, is a purely human invention to help us wrap our minds around complex quantum eventualities.

Destiny, Fate, and Luck are all reasonably close in definition, if you don't count the positive and negative connotations to each respectively. All entail an eventuality, and a path, and means to reach them. All likewise entail an important turning point - a "fateful decision". Basically, they are there to imply that there are no accidents. Some more metaphysically minded will add the element of "predestination": the idea that there is some plan, some design, some hand that guides us inexorably. And perhaps many of us have had the feeling that said Hand reached surreptitiously out of the sky and smacked us on the back of the head when we weren't looking. So for the sake of simplicity, let's just roll them into one big philosophical burrito called "Destiny."

So I put the question to you, then - was this a tiny taste of "Destiny" or was this "Cause and Effect"? Or a little of both? Are you Type #1, 2, or 3?

How I see it - that incident was really the result of a stacked deck. The fact that we were in that intersection at that moment meant that we were at the intersection of many things, let alone rainy streets. The right time, the elements, the right people, the right reasons - or wrong, depending on your point of view - practically made that situation ripe for a tiny catastrophe.

However - we didn't have to be there at the right time. We didn't have to be there at all. It makes the mind reach for another reason, one that I'll concede may not be there. But the point is, it's the reaching, not the finding, that makes us a little different. For many of us, it betrays our true desires. We want to believe in something else.

So whereas I would like to say I'm Type #1 (far be it from me to disappoint you that Moose is not a die-hard skeptic); I have to admit I'm probably Type #3. I believe, or I want to believe, in a little bit of both.

Now, you're probably asking what this has to do with Star Wars?

Well, lots. Ever notice how much importance is placed on the word "Destiny"? It might make us ask not only what type of person we are, but maybe wonder a little bit about what kind of person George Lucas is. It's clear that he believes in a place where there is such a thing. And in that place, Destiny is all important. Destiny is the battleground between good and evil.

The word itself appears about 12 times in the saga, most always in momentous scenes, always by the most important players. Oddly, the first mention comes to us from a good old Type #1 in Episode IV:

"There's no mystical energy field that controls my destiny."
--Han Solo, coming up on the ruins of Alderaan

Han may at first be like many people out there. He's not convinced there's something pulling his strings, and rather enjoys the idea of being master of his own ways and ends. But he doesn't stay that way, does he? Of course, this is the same person that blurts out "Never tell me the odds!" Complex guy, that Han Solo.

Obi-Wan, however, is a firm believer in Destiny:

"Your destiny lies along a different path than mine. The Force will be with you...always!"
-- Obi-Wan Kenobi, shortly before his death

Or is he? Whereas he strongly believes in Luke's destiny, he doesn't entrust Luke with the truth about who he is, or what happened to anyone 20 years ago. It's not so easy for Obi-Wan to let go, and perhaps it wouldn't be for anyone that felt the guilt he must harbor. It may be that Obi-Wan doesn't put so much stock in Destiny alone. He may be like many of us -wary of his own mistakes, and therefore allows for practical doses of both. Given his "certain point of view", it makes sense that Obi-Wan is in the ranks of Faithful Skeptics.

In Episode V and VI, we start to see the viewpoints of more ardent acolytes on both sides of morality, and everyone joins the fray. Yoda, Vader, and Palpatine - these are diehard Type #2's. They're practically made of of this stuff. Between them, the battle over Destiny has truly begun:

"If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny..."
--Yoda, during Luke's training, V

"Your destiny lies with me, Skywalker. Obi-Wan knew this to be true."
-- Darth Vader, fighting Luke, V

"Luke. You can destroy the Emperor. He has foreseen this. It is your destiny."
-- Darth Vader, revealing his identity to Luke, V

"Luke...it is your destiny."
-- Darth Vader, as Luke flees, V

"Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny."
-- Yoda, shortly before his own death, VI

"You cannot escape your destiny."
--the ghost of Obi-Wan, VI

"If that is your destiny..."
-- Darth Vader, as Luke says he'll die before he's turned, VI

"It is unavoidable. It is your destiny. You, like your father, are now mine!"
-- Emperor Palpatine, beckoning Luke to the Dark Side, VI

"Now, fulfill your destiny and take your father's place at my side!"
-- Emperor Palpatine, after Vader has fallen to Luke, VI

At which point Darth Vader, already grappling with the spirit of Anakin trapped deep within his persona, must have remembered the last time Palpatine said something similar to him:

"You are fulfilling your destiny, Anakin..."
-- Chancellor Palpatine, as Anakin becomes Darth Vader, III

See, just like a slippery intersection on the wrong night, the odds are stacked. As they battle over their various ideas of Destiny, Destiny is planning its own arrival. It provided for Evil and Good alike. It provided Balance, and a means to maintain it. It provided a Prophecy, and a Chosen One. It laid out all the components for a collision of Will and Hope, between those that believe, those that don't, and those that aren't quite sure. Because in the Star Wars saga, Destiny has another name: the Force.

If we were to ask Mr. Lucas to tell us exactly which type of person he was - 1, 2 or 3: Skeptic, Believer, or Both, I really wonder: what would he say? What would you say?

Drive Safely.

DM out