Your Destiny Awaits

I think of the Norns in Norse mythology, but almost every culture has a version, the Fates from Greece, those witches in Macbeth...each life has its own inevitable course and is overseen by some all-seeing deities. Man has been obsessed with the trajectory of his ultimate destiny since time began. Of course, fate and its prediction can take many shapes. Scientists try it, astrologists try it, even school-children think they've got it mastered. Or at least have fun pretending. Observe:

Recent acquisitions in the Used Book Cellar all demonstrate the many ways in which we look toward our fate. In Paul Davies' The Last Three Minutes, a scientist offers popular conjectures to the ultimate fate of our Universe. What if the universe just disappeared instantly? What if worlds continued to pop into existence ad infinitum for eternity? There are a lot of possibilities that scientists kick around, and this book is exhaustive but accessible.

Older than string theories are attempts to determine fate and destiny by means of constellations and the stars beneath which we were born. The UBC recently got in a small paperback--Astrology and Your Destiny--by Edith Niles, complete with charts, tables, fun illustrations and an easy introduction to the methods of Western Astrology and how these methods can illuminate the future path your life may take. No matter what your sign, there is also a great deal of useful information contained herein to protect and enlighten. Did you know Geminis are capable of carrying on two affairs at once, and might be cheaters? Beware! Just think of all the other tidbits you're missing--the mess you're making of your destiny--by not reading this book.

I don't know about you, dear reader, but I learned about how the choices one makes can significantly affect the course of your destiny at 8 years old. I believe the title was something like Choose Your Own Adventure: The Abominable Snowman in the Marshes of the Moon or somesuch. And I was eaten by that accursed yeti because of a foul turn made on page 13. But if the bigness of fate--the universe, your life--is overwhelming, maybe this traditionally-nontraditional method of storytelling is something worth revisiting.

Perhaps a version of fate you can play with might be in order. Lost in Austen: Create Your Own Jane Austen Adventure by Emma Campbell Webster is just such a book. Traipse through an 18th century British love triangle of your own, choose your destiny, and see where it leads you. If you don't like it you can always start at the beginning again and choose differently. Ah, the power of literature!

As I said before, schoolchildren have their ways of determining fate. That's where the human element of this blog comes in. For what is a tale of destiny without the destinies of some very real used book buyers weaved into this tapestry? So your humble used book buyers, Carl and myself, took up the threads of the Norns and played M.A.S.H. Do you remember it? The easiest way to find out your destiny with a paper and pencil. There are infinite variations, but in mine, I learned that I'd marry Jon Stewart, we'd live in Oslo with no children but a pet snow leopard instead, and that I'll be in a metal band called Nymeria. COPYRIGHTED. Carl, on the other hand, will be a gym teacher in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, married to Natalie Portman and they'll have an impressive brood of 99 children.

Your destiny probably holds something different. Maybe one of these books is in it? Or perhaps there's a different book waiting in the Cellar for you, and only YOU. Come check it out. Your destiny awaits...