If I listed the Top 10 movies I have enjoyed, Forrest Gump would be right up there. At the end of the movie Forrest as at the gravesite of his beloved “Jenny” and he is speaking to her as if she could hear. One of his lines is: “I am not sure of Lt. Dan is right when he said we all have a destiny or was Mama right when she said we are all sort of floating on a breeze…I think it may be a combination of both.”
Take a step back and think of your own life. Perhaps focus on some very significant events that have occurred such as meeting your spouse. How much of that was purely coincidental in nature vs. planned out? If this was a casual, incidental meeting at a social gathering or conference, one part of this was “destiny” as you both were in the same place/at the same time given the professional/personal tracts you both took. The other part, sort of “floating in the breeze” is being in the same exact place at the same exact time and somehow catching each others’ eyes.
We have all heard stories of very successful business people hitting their first major success via both hard work (their destiny) and their luck in making the right connections at the right (their “floating on a breeze”) at the exact right time.
Now, to the healthcare arena: We are all born with a certain genetic predisposition to certain disease (our “destiny”). However, there are certain other events that occur that impact our health that are sort of “floating on a breeze” such as being in a severe car accident (floating on a breeze).
Our healthcare “destiny” can be very much impacted positively by our controllable actions: Not smoking, exercising and of course, keeping weight under control are all things we CAN do to change our destinies from a healthcare perspective. Certainly there are medical conditions that our destiny will bring us to, and any women out there that tested positive for the BRCA 1 or 2 gene mutations for breast cancer can attest to this.
So, I agree with Forrest Gump that Mama and Lt. Dan were both correct. We all do have a destiny and good/bad luck in many aspects of our lives, including how long we will live and how healthy we will live those years. Stay focused on your weight control efforts and both your destiny and serendipity will be better ones.
Enjoy the last touching scene from Forrest Gump.
