January 2nd, 2014: New York City mayor, Bill de Blasio, vows to combat income inequality, James Avery of “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” fame succumbs to open-heart surgery complications, Aubrey Loots marries Danny Leclair, becoming the first same-sex couple to be wed at the Rose Parade, and in Maharashtra, India, a bus plummets 400 feet off the Malshej Ghat mountain pass, killing 27 of its passengers. Among the victims of the Malshej Ghat incident was one Anna Teresa Ty, a Calgary based pharmacologist, born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and mother of three children. I knew her as “auntie Tessie”. Fate is a cruel invention. A word created to make us believe that everything happens for a set reason: every joy we experience, every sorrow we suffer, every decision we have ever or will ever make, EVERYTHING is predestined to occur. Regardless of any attempts we make to avoid that which we do not desire, or any effort we concoct to acquire that which we yearn, all will be for naught. From the first warmth of light to your last dying breath, according to fate, all events we undergo are dictated. I call bullshit.
