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Fate and Destiny,
The Two Agreements of the Soul
By Michael Meade
Copyright © 2010
Editor's Note:
Michael Meade drums as he tells the old stories, drumming us into that liminal, threshold space where we soak up these stories into our very cells! One of the finest storytellers and change agents I have ever heard, his most recent book is Fate and Destiny. More about Michael Meade
In the introduction to Fate and Destiny, Meade discusses the meaning of both words. Several of his comments are: "Fate is an invisible thread woven through all the things of the world and through all the events of time…Fate involves those things which are woven into the fabric of our soul from the beginning." About destiny, he says, "…The greater life is to be found where destiny calls to each of us to become who we are in essence, to live far enough into life to reveal the inner story set within us…"
Initially, I wished to quote the chapter, “Life Sentences,” about the time Meade spent in prison after becoming a soldier during the Vietnam War. He found that he could not obey orders, and in a very moving story, he tells about his subsequent imprisonment, fasting, near death, and rescue. Much of his later work is with soldiers, prisoners, gang members, and youth imprisoned by poverty and/or abuse (See his “Voices of Youth”). This chapter, however, is too long to include here, so I have chosen a shorter excerpt, which speaks also to our themes.
I encourage you to read this book. The story of his own imprisonment is worth the price of the book. Meade also includes twenty stories from cultures around the world; stories which illuminate the roles fate and destiny (and good sense or its lack) play in our lives. I have chosen “Zushya’s Last Words,” a traditional Hasidic Tale, for this issue.
All rights are reserved to the contents of this book. The publisher is GreenFire Press, Copyright ©2010 by Michael J. Meade. The excerpt is reprinted here with the permission of the author.
