Things don’t “happen for a reason”

I believe in free will. Emphatically. And, interestingly, many people who also believe in free will inexplicably suggest that random or crappy situations “happen for a reason.” Logically, this makes no sense.

If it is true that time is a measurement of lifespan and time marches on indefinitely, it must then be true that life always goes on (until death). Things in life, therefore, will continue to happen, whether they are planned for or not.

To assume something happens for a reason is to assume that there is a known endgame to your life. I don’t believe there is a higher power puppeteering us around. Rather, I believe there are an infinite set of outcomes that are possible and each moment in our life moves us closer to one of them. Phrased differently, life is an infinite Klinko game; we drop a ball and any series of pegs will push the ball in a different direction. Gravity is the force of time, pegs are life events and we are the ball. No one knows where we will end up, just that we will.

So, things don’t happen “for a reason,” they just happen. It is true, though, that life continues (gravity pulls the ball down) and whatever just happened to you (peg you hit) alters the course your life. Looking backwards, it will be clear which pegs you hit and how they contributed to where you ended up (a la Steve Jobs’ Stanford commencement speech). Looking forward, there is an infinite number of possibilities and it’s up to you to choose the nearest peg that you like the best knowing that you have no idea where it will take you.

Here’s to the next peg.