A Life based on Fate, Cliches and Platitudes.

This guy lives a sickly, miserable life and suffers from hypertension, diabetes and other medical problems that he cries about every day to attract pity and attention. Today, as usual, he whined about his medical conditions and everyone around felt sorry for him. He was still basking in the flood of pity when someone asked what he was doing about his obesity? Before he could answer, another person wondered why he always ate so much junk foods and drank gallons of soda every night? Finally, someone he called a friend joked that at home, the guy was a lazy couch potato who did nothing but watch TV.

Suddenly, the man resorted to cliches and platitudes by blaming everything on fate.

Now, I couldn't help asking him "Your fate? What has fate got to do with your poor, unhealthy lifestyle?"

He had no answer except to shrug his shoulders in utter surrender.

Second only to "The devil made me do it", the next most widely abused platitude is "It's just my fate."

Too many individuals stubbornly, ignorantly and recklessly perpetrate acts of omission and commission in their lives, careers and relationships. But instead of accepting responsibilities for their poor decisions, bad choices and inappropriate actions, they lazily and gleefully take solace in sheer cliches and platitudes. They blame everything on fate or destiny (its distant cousin). And there are times when even God gets the blame!

A few days ago, I heard this story about a "corporate" woman who just learned that four of the men she dated intimately in the past couple of years were...guess what...friends. The guys had taken a bet to pass her around without divulging their knowledge of each other. After almost crying her eyes out in angry and frustrated reaction, she blamed the whole thing on God, wondering how the heavenly father could ever allow such a mess to happen in her life. Obviously, she was a victim of mischief at the hands of a bunch of guys who refused to grow up but the woman, on her own part, was guilty of "contributive" negligence. Whatever happened to common sense, decency and principles? Four men (among others) in just a couple of years!