The Ironic Side of Destiny

I cannot stop thinking about the strange and mysterious nature of destiny.  I often envision something years before its fulfillment. Then I push and strive to make it materialize. Unfortunately, my grasping seems to only go so far before it ends up in disappointment. I go for the cake and end up gnawing on the wax candle.

Once convinced a particular dream was merely a figment of my imagination, a similar opportunity presents. Then God seems to say, “Here you go!” Funny thing, at that point I am emotionally detached from what I thought I so desperately wanted. This repeated experience leads me to believe that destiny is a mix of not only envisioning and working hard, but also a twist of divine irony as well, which often appears when we humans have exhausted all of our efforts and expertise.

At my great-nephew’s first birthday party on Sunday, a family friend, Craig Freeman, told me an interesting story. He watched a program in which Donald Trump addressed a group of hopeful entrepreneurs at a convention (Apologies, Craig and Donald, if I get some details incorrect).

Donald said to the transfixed crowd, “98% of you will never be successful.” Craig went on to paraphrase Donald’s message as to why but what really stuck with me was, “Successful people have to put their shoulder into it and keep pushing and pushing. Few have what it takes to do that!” Craig and his wife Pam are entrepreneurs who can definitely attest to this truth having worked for years establishing a successful business, Perfect Firefighter Candidate. After hearing this story, I felt like Donald’s words stabbed my balloon of optimism with a sharp pin of truth. Yet I couldn’t help wondering, “How much more shoulder do I need to lay into my dreams?”

Then the next day, I experienced a strange twist of fate that revealed the ironic side of destiny…but first a little bit of history so you will understand why. Several years ago, I joined a business venture that featured a 21st Century classroom-learning environment designed by a brilliant technology whiz and empathetic former educator, Ray Zellinski.

We tried to pitch the business plan to a local school district to no avail. However, the model did spread as teachers saw the model in his wife’s classroom and attended trainings in my classroom.

Unfortunately, Ray never benefited monetarily from all of his hard work. All of us working with him eventually went our separate ways puzzling over why the vision never materialized as we thought it would.

Yesterday, I taught a training course for teachers from a local private school. Their progressive principal inquired about expanding the school’s technology. Ray’s model, now my classroom reality, came to mind. I chuckled to myself thinking about the irony of how hard we all pushed to no avail and yet how far his vision has spread.

I don’t know whether anything will come about as far as helping this school develop technology, but I did sense a visitation of destiny. Yes, I have labored at expanding my technology expertise and classroom applications in ways that have benefited students and teachers. I have “put my shoulder into providing a workable model teachers have recreated for their own classrooms. However, I am certain that without the breath of divine destiny, this new possibility of helping a private school will not sprout wings, even though I’m ready for another interesting flight!