I personally believe (and I don't expect anyone else to agree) that we live just as long as we are supposed to. No more no less. I don't believe that any one's life is "cut short". We die when we are meant to.This family was meant to die as they did and the fact that they were attractive and rich and (for their time period) tabloid fodder, doesn't make any difference
I'm sorry, Alixz, but I have to majorly disagree with you here. Their lives WERE cut short.
It's one thing to die of natural causes, a heart attack, for example. However, to be brutally murdered by a bunch of hired thugs with guns, that is not natural. They were not meant to die that way, no one is.
What about Anne Frank and the millions of Jews (and other groups) that the Nazis slaughtered in World War II? Would you say that they were meant to die that way? I wouldn't. These people were murdered, like the IF were. There is nothing natural about it.
Sorry if I come off sounding harsh, but that is how I feel on this matter.
Tim while I'll certainly agree with you and
Rodney on this I am open to, what I think,
Alixz is suggesting about each one of us having a predetermined fate.
To be perfectly honest I find that a comforting sentiment, not because I wish to die young or experience great pain, but because it more or less proves to me that a higher power is at work. While lamenting their deaths, not only for the fact that they died young but brutally, I do find great symbolism in it. Anne Frank is of course another symbol...and their lives, innocence and inner beauty worked in with their martyrdom stands in stark contrast to the ideology and actions of their oppressors.
My only question regarding your quasi-predestination belief is how deeply deeply it runs? Does it not only dictate our fate but all of our actions? Are we simply and unknowingly puppets/actors playing out a role (and if so what would really be the point of doing or caring about anything!) or do we still possess some level of free will?
Earlier Alixz said something along the lines of "they were simple religious people who died without putting up much of a fuss...". To back up your comments
Tim I'm going to claim that this description also applies to many many of the Jews who suffered oppression and death in the Holocaust. What your Anne Frank is to the Jews, your OTMAA is, in many ways, to the victims of Soviet Regime. Doesn't make them
better or more worthy people then many of the millions who perished, but it certainly symbolizes their fate as a whole.
The idea of dying "when we are meant to" certainly points to this. Another brilliant forum member I have privately corresponded with also once said "they [OTMAA] were not long for this world regardless...". There was a greater purpose to their experience than old women dying decades later in exile would have allowed for...
Alixz one of your comments that I am a little confused by and would like you to elaborate on a little (perhaps this isn't the right topic of conversation for this) is the following;
"What makes their death interesting is that they didn't fight for life. They accepted their fate." In a strange way I both agree and disagree with that opinion and would love to hear your take or what exactly you are referring to...?
Sorry for this VERY long off the topic post so let me quickly place the cart back on the rails by saying
Ann (Kalafrana) I think that is a great idea. As self anointed "Project Tsar" I'm commissioning you, should you choose to accept, with the task of getting the ball rolling on this. You're a fantastic writer so I'm pretty certain that you'll produce something of value for the rest of us to expand on!
