In this memoir, author Ryan James uses the events and experiences of his life to explore the concept of destiny. He shows how all of his life’s actions have affected who he is today—his birth on a farm during a raging blizzard, the death of his mother two days after his birth, attending college in the 1960s, enlisting in the US Army, serving in England, graduating from engineering school, working as an engineer, traveling within the United States and abroad, and enjoying retirement.
Where Destiny Led: What If? examines the consequences—the what ifs—of changes in the stream of events. What would be the result? What would life be like today? It examines James’s past and present from the perspective of his own destiny—the mystical force that weaves our lives together, the universal control that makes us who we are at any given time.
In this memoir, author Ryan James uses the events and experiences of his life to explore the concept of destiny. He shows how all of his life’s actions have affected who he is today—his birth on a farm during a raging blizzard, the death of his mother two days after his birth, attending college in the 1960s, enlisting in the US Army, serving in England, graduating from engineering school, working as an engineer, traveling within the United States and abroad, and enjoying retirement.
Where Destiny Led: What If? examines the consequences—the what ifs—of changes in the stream of events. What would be the result? What would life be like today? It examines James’s past and present from the perspective of his own destiny—the mystical force that weaves our lives together, the universal control that makes us who we are at any given time.
eBook
Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
Related collections and offers
Overview
In this memoir, author Ryan James uses the events and experiences of his life to explore the concept of destiny. He shows how all of his life’s actions have affected who he is today—his birth on a farm during a raging blizzard, the death of his mother two days after his birth, attending college in the 1960s, enlisting in the US Army, serving in England, graduating from engineering school, working as an engineer, traveling within the United States and abroad, and enjoying retirement.
Where Destiny Led: What If? examines the consequences—the what ifs—of changes in the stream of events. What would be the result? What would life be like today? It examines James’s past and present from the perspective of his own destiny—the mystical force that weaves our lives together, the universal control that makes us who we are at any given time.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781462046683 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | iUniverse, Incorporated |
| Publication date: | 09/28/2011 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| File size: | 203 KB |
Read an Excerpt
where destiny led: What If?
Life's Master ControlBy Ryan James
iUniverse, Inc.
Copyright © 2011 Ryan JamesAll right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4620-4666-9
Chapter One
Destiny and What-If
According to Shakespeare, "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts ..." But who writes the script for our decisions and our lives, and who directs the show? Do you honestly think you control your life, planning and carrying out every idea and decision? Could it be that a universal control determines how our lives evolve, putting us in the time and place where we are at this instant?
Life is a continuing series of decisions and consequences. There are decisions that we make ourselves and decisions that other individuals, groups, or organizations make for us. The consequences of this series of decisions constitute the lives we live and have brought us to this exact moment. What has led you to your present location, position, and status? For example, if you are married, did you make a decision at a very young age that at a future time you would just happen to be at a specific location and time where you would meet your future spouse (who also just happened to be at the same location at the same time)? The fact that the two of you met is the result of many decisions and consequences, some of which may have been major decisions, but most of which were small, insignificant, day-to-day decisions. The story of your life and mine is the result of all the decisions, consequences, and events that occur continually, starting the day we were born.
What is the controlling function that molds our lives and brings us to this point? It's Destiny. Destiny is that hard-to-define mystical force that weaves our lives together. It is the master or universal control that makes us what we are at any given instant, and there is only one master control for the entire universe. Some people define Destiny as the master plan of a Supreme Being. The American Heritage College Dictionary defines Destiny as "the preordained or inevitable course of events considered as something beyond the power or control of man." However you choose to define Destiny, or whatever name you give it, it exists.
Although we continue to make decisions every day, Destiny guides and leads the decisions we make—however insignificant or earth shattering. Every decision we make is part of the overall plan for the universe and is governed by the master control, Destiny. Not all of the decisions we are led to make are good. If they were, we would live in a utopian world where everything is always perfect.
Destiny sometimes leads us to make bad decisions as well as good. Destiny is the result of decisions, and at the same time, it causes these decisions to be made. Even the mundane decisions of what you wear at a given time are part of your Destiny. For example, the shoes you are wearing resulted from a number of decisions. Where did you buy these shoes? How did you choose the color? Why did you buy this pair as opposed to hundreds of alternatives? The result of these and other decisions led you to wear this particular pair of shoes at this specific time.
For years, theologians and laypersons have discussed and sometimes argued the "doctrine of predestination," which the dictionary defines as "the doctrine that God has foreordained all things." In other words, your entire life was planned before you were even born. Many discussions and arguments of this doctrine ultimately end up focusing on the end of life and the life hereafter.
Destiny can be described as the master plan for your life. Destiny is in constant control of your life and the decisions, events, and consequences of all of these decisions, however large or small. Destiny leads you to be who you are, where you are, and the type of person you are at any given instant in your life.
Destiny leads everyone through life differently. Like snowflakes, no two people are the same and follow exactly the same plan through life. The myriad of daily decisions, events, and consequences are individually unique. People are not stamped out on a giant press in a repetitious manner. We are not molded or formed with a huge cookie cutter. Destiny treats us all like individual entities. Small, insignificant, common decisions along the way may appear to be the same for several people, but overall, even for a short period of time, you are who and what you are—and nobody else is. What if we were all the same and every decision or event was the same for everyone? Wouldn't this be a dull world? Destiny makes life much more interesting.
My brother, Harry, is an interesting example of how Destiny leads a person through the various stages of life. Harry was a typical American boy, mischievous at times but a good kid who respected his parents and understood authority and discipline. He was strong and athletic. Although Harry never appeared to be overweight, his capacity for consuming food was legendary. His one drawback was a slight speech impediment that caused him to stutter. This did not prevent him from having many friends.
Harry was not academically inclined. He was much more sports minded. His grades through high school were always adequate, but he did not achieve his real potential until later. School was not one of Harry's favorite pastimes, and he played hooky on several occasions. Unfortunately for Harry, every time he "took an afternoon off," Mom would be waiting at the door with her arms folded when he got home. She had developed an amazing communications system that alerted her whenever Harry was not in school when he should have been.
Shortly after graduating from high school, Harry was drafted into the US Army. It was the middle of World War II, and he and others his age were all subjected to the draft. During a physical examination at the army induction center, they found that Harry had a preexisting hernia condition, disqualifying him from serving in the military. Harry was determined to serve along with his friends, and he argued until they accepted him. What if he had not argued and simply accepted the fact that he was physically not qualified to serve in the army? How would his life have been different? Destiny led him to serve with his friends.
The army sent Harry to Fort Worth, Texas, for basic training. A week before he completed basic training, he was hospitalized for surgery to repair his hernia. As a result, he could not "graduate" with his training unit. His original training unit was sent to Germany and suffered a high rate of combat casualties. What if Harry had completed basic training with his unit and been deployed with them? Would he have been a casualty? Destiny led him instead to have surgery and afterward repeat most of his training before he was sent to Germany. Although Harry never talked about that part of his life, he was involved in heavy combat. Destiny eventually led him home safely.
After some brief time off to relax, Harry started a job at one of the local paper mills. After working a couple of months, he came home one day, placed his dinner bucket on the kitchen table, and announced that he had quit his job and was going to enroll at Western Michigan University. Harry graduated from WMU four years later, went on to attend Western Theological Seminary, and became an ordained minister of the Reformed Church in America.
Destiny led Harry and his wife, Joy, to serve churches in Kentucky, Michigan, New York, South Dakota, Kansas, and Alabama. Harry's life ended far too soon due to a massive heart attack while playing golf with his son. Harry's chosen profession was not one that many people—certainly not some of his high school teachers—would have predicted when he was young. Destiny sometimes works in mysterious ways!
Destiny does not always lead us to make good decisions, and although Destiny controls our lives, we cannot use it as an excuse for poor performance or bad behavior. When humans commit crimes, these actions are part of the universal plan for the universe, but the people who commit crimes must be held accountable. A crime is not excusable because a perpetrator claims that Destiny made him do it. Some court cases have ended with surprising verdicts, but no one has ever been acquitted of committing a crime because he or she pled "Not guilty; Destiny led me to commit the crime." We cannot hold Destiny accountable for our actions, nor can we blame it for our failures.
Not everyone can be at the top of the ladder in one's chosen profession. We cannot all be CEOs of large corporations. Perhaps predestination plays a role in the way that Destiny leads us through life. In any case, Destiny leads all of us to our own statuses, locations, and positions in life. It leads some to excel and others to struggle through life.
Destiny controls the results of our decisions and events, and we cannot challenge it, alter it, or reverse it. However, in retrospect, we can play an amusing game called "what-if," which can be particularly fun to play as we get older. You can ask yourself the following: What if I had done this or made this decision instead of the one I did? What if the climate or world affairs had been different at a particular point in my life? What would Destiny have led me into if things had been different?
To play the what-if game, simply think about a specific event in your past. For example, suppose you moved to another state. What if you hadn't moved or hadn't moved to that particular state at that specific time? Your life would have taken a much different turn. The friends you have met since the move would have been different, and your life in general would have followed a different path.
The sports world is full of opportunities to play what-if. Games are a continuous string of decisions, circumstances, and events. Game officials on the field, on the diamond, and on the court make instant decisions controlled by Destiny, and in the end, one of the competitors is destined to be the winner and the other is destined to be the loser. Often the result hinges on a couple of plays that could have made a difference. For example, in the last few seconds of a closely fought football game, controversy over a pass that appeared to be caught in the end zone was ruled incomplete. The outcome of the game depended on the ruling. Team A, the defensive team on the play, won the game. What if the last-second pass had been ruled a completion? Team B would then have won. In this case, Destiny deemed Team A as the winner.
Professional football and some college football conferences have adopted instant replay. Other sports may also adopt this concept. Critical decisions can be reviewed thanks to modern television recording procedures, and the outcomes can be changed. This merely causes a slight delay in the final decision, the same as if the officials held a lengthy discussion before making the initial ruling. In life, we do not have the convenience of a review or instant replay. If Destiny allowed us to challenge and have instant replay, some people would spend a large portion of their lives in the replay mode.
In a baseball game, the score was three to two, with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, and the home team had a runner on second base. The batter hit a single, and the runner on second attempted to score. The throw to the plate was accurate, and in a very close play, the runner was ruled out. But what if the catcher had not held on to the ball? The game would be tied, and the home team would still have a chance to win. Destiny cannot be challenged. Once the play is complete it cannot be done over with possibly a different result.
We can use a brief description of the life of Louie Armstrong to illustrate the way Destiny guides one's life and creates opportunities to contemplate "what-if."
Louis Daniel Armstrong, who preferred to be called "Louie Armstrong," was born in 1901. He was born into a poor family in New Orleans, Louisiana, and raised in a rough neighborhood. His father abandoned the family when Louis was an infant. His mother became a prostitute and left Louis and his younger sister with their grandmother. At the age of five, Louis moved back to live with his mother.
The young Louis attended the Fisk School for Boys. He earned money as a paperboy and by finding discarded food and selling it to restaurants. He also hauled coal to the red-light district and listened to the bands playing in the brothels and dance halls. Armstrong learned at an early age that music could lead to money and fame. He saw the popularity of the musicians who played in funeral and celebratory parades in New Orleans. After dropping out of school at the age of eleven, Louis joined a quartet of his friends and began singing on the streets of New Orleans for nickels and pennies. He also began getting in trouble. He was sent to the New Orleans Home for Colored Waifs multiple times for general delinquency. On New Year's Eve of 1913, when Louis was twelve years old, he celebrated by firing his stepfather's pistol into the air. He was caught and sent to the Home for Colored Waifs, this time for a longer term. It was there that Louis learned to play the cornet. He soon was good enough to play at picnics and parades. The home had a band that played around New Orleans, and thirteen-year-old Louis began to attract attention for his cornet playing. This was the beginning of his musical career. What if Louis had not been caught firing a gun at the age of twelve and sent to the New Orleans Home for Colored Waifs, where he learned to play a cornet? Would he have later embarked on a life of crime? Would he have eventually discovered music as an avocation?
At the age of fourteen, Armstrong was released from the home, and he lived temporarily with his father and stepmother. After a short time, he moved back to live with his mother, and he soon went back to the streets. He obtained his first dance hall job and played his cornet at night while hauling coal during the day. He began to play in brass band parades. Later he played in bands on riverboats up and down the Mississippi River. Armstrong's cornet playing continued to improve as he gained experience.
In 1922, Armstrong traveled to Chicago and joined a band. He started making enough money playing music that he no longer needed to supplement his income with other jobs. Two years later, he moved to New York to play with Fletcher Henderson's band, one of the top African American bands of the day, and he eventually switched from playing cornet to trumpet. He later returned to Chicago. He remained there for three years, making many recordings and earning worldwide acclaim. When he returned to New York in 1929, both black and white audiences worldwide knew of Armstrong. He became a big part of the big band era.
Louie Armstrong was the first great trumpet soloist in jazz. He enjoyed making people happy. Destiny led him to a life of fame and fortune.
Destiny even controls world affairs. Adolf Hitler was an aspiring artist in his younger days, and he applied to a leading art school to pursue a career in art. What if his art school application had been accepted? Would Hitler have become known for his contributions to art instead of the Holocaust and his ambitions for world domination? How would the tide of events have evolved if the Japanese had not bombed Pearl Harbor, signaling the entry of the United States into World War II?
Destiny controls all aspects of our lives, starting with birth. It controls our environment, our education, our financial success, our emotions, our friendships, and our sense of values. It controls the young adolescent years, the teenage years, the young adult years, marital status, careers, and, if we are fortunate, our retirement years.
None of us selected our parents. We did not have a choice of whether to be born to a single mother or a loving couple. We were not asked if we preferred to be born to wealthy parents or to poor and impoverished parents. We were not consulted as to what our religious preferences were, and we were not given a choice of where we were born. Destiny controlled who our parents were and the environments in which we were raised. There are many "what-ifs" that we can ask as our lives continue, and one of them is what if our parental situations had been different? Would our lives have been better or worse? What if the location where we were born and raised had been different? What would the results have been?
(Continues...)
Excerpted from where destiny led: What If? by Ryan James Copyright © 2011 by Ryan James. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
Preface....................ixChapter 1 Destiny and What-If....................1
Chapter 2 Birth and Adolescence....................16
Chapter 3 The Teen Years....................26
Chapter 4 Military Life....................37
Chapter 5 College Days....................58
Chapter 6 Married Life....................66
Chapter 7 Career....................77
Chapter 8 Retirement....................85
Chapter 9 Characters Encountered along the Way....................95
Chapter 10 Life on the Go....................103
Chapter 11 The Greatest Trip So Far....................118
Chapter 12 Life Goes On....................127
Chapter 13 How Destiny Guided the Lives of Famous People....................137
Chapter 14 In Retrospect....................150
Epilogue....................163