“We must believe in free will – we have no choice”
~Isaac Bashevis Singer

My husband and I went to the movie “The Adjustment Bureau” recently. I had to see this movie because, as my husband explained when telling his brother about it, it’s about free will. Free will is something I’ve been thinking about for a very long time.

In the movie Matt Damon’s character is told he doesn’t have free will, except in small matters;  that when he goes off a predetermined path, a little “adjustment” is made, with him none the wiser, by members of the Adjustment Bureau. He has to decide what he believes and his actions will be based on those beliefs just as our actions are based on our beliefs. I won’t discuss the movie any more since you may not have seen it yet, but be warned; the comments may give parts of the story away!

At times we may wish there were such a benevolent administrative body looking out for us and making sure everything was going “right” in our lives but would we want to have that at the expense of our free will?

What do you think about free will? Do we have it? How would you define it? For myself, I’d rather believe it is me who runs my life. Even if I don’t always immediately choose the best path, even if things don’t go exactly the way I want them to, I want my life to be my life. I want to be the one in charge.

What or who do you think is running your life and to what extent? What do you believe? Do we have decision making power in everything, or are we children of fate, given freedom within certain perimeters? If our fate has been determined before we arrived in this life who determined it? Is it luck by which our lives operate or is there something else at play?

Free will or fate – who or what’s in charge in your life?

photo credit: Mike Baird