No Matter How Many Times I Try, Fate Somehow Finds Me

Kind of a funny phenomenon, honestly

“A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.” — Jean de La Fontaine, Fables

I’ve been thinking about that quote a lot.

Have you ever heard the story of Oedipus? It’s…a weird one. But it does relate really well to the quote. It goes something like this:

There’s an oracle who tells a man named Laius, the King of Thebes, that his unborn son, Oedipus, will kill him. Laius does not like this. When Oedipus is born, Laius takes him to a remote mountainside and leaves him to die. Not exactly what I’d call being a great parent, but hey, different times.

By chance, a passing shepherd rescues Oedipus and brings him to the king of Corinth, who raises him as his own. Many years later, after Oedipus is a grown, young man, he leaves Corinth and embarks on a journey.

Along the way, he crosses paths with an old man who is accompanied by a handful of servants. An argument escalates into a fight, and Oedipus kills the old man and all but one of his servants (like I said, different times).

The old man, of course, was his father Laius. However, Oedipus doesn’t find this out for many years.