Cowlicks

My old "friend" frustration came along today as I styled my hair. It doesn't seem to matter if I wash, blow-dry and layer it with goop and spray, thanks to cowlicks my contrary hair follows its own path. Most often the cowlick on the back splits into a chasm, creating the illusion I have just retreated from my pillow. And, I don't just have one cowlick, I have four or five, all competing for the most unusual design. Some days the result is so outlandish I start over, at least once, although in a fit of desperation I have been know to grab scissors. In fact I'm surprised I'm not bald!

How fitting a name is "cowlicks"? It's as if some celestial, cud-crewing bovine slurped its disgusting tongue over my infant head and the crud stuck its way into my hair's memory. Nothing can disrupt the predestined mold.

Mike (my husband) seems to have a circular hair pattern. It goes back on one side and forward on the other. Perhaps that's why the hair in the middle appears to have worn off in confusion. :}

Is hair an indication of life in general, does that mean Mike is destined to a revolving life cycle and me to a helter-skelter route?

A friend recently placed a book in my hand with an insistence to read it before I returned it to her. Anne Rice and I never crossed paths prior to this. Within an hour of beginning "The Witching Hour," every OCD particle in my body kicked in and withing days all 965 pages were turned. My lesson in this? I still don't like witches!

One element seemed repeated throughout the book, especially in reference to one protagonist, Michael--are the events of our lives planned, or predestined? I found myself wondering (as I have many times in the past) if there is not some master-plan we're following, something at work not only on my scalp but in my entire life?

It is common knowledge our decisions have the potential of changing every moment of our lives from that point on. Several years ago I interviewed a man involved in a traffic accident. When he was withing two blocks of his workplace, he pulled off the road to clean away the heavy snow accumulating on his windshield. "Why did I stop there?" he asked himself aloud to me. He indicated he could easily have gone the two blocks without cleaning the window, but that decision altered his life. Within seconds of his pulling back on the road again, a pickup coming the opposite direction lost control over a bridge and careened sideways into my witness. The side-impact of the pickup with the front of the witnesses vehicle caused an immediate explosion, killing the pickup truck driver and leaving the witness shattered as the scene unfolded before him. The nearest vehicles were a mile away in each direction. What if the witness hadn't stopped? It's a question he will ask himself for the rest of his life.

Is it "coincidence" or "predetermination"? Can we re-route the events of our lives or are we lead to life-changing decisions? Can communication with a higher being effect the choices we make or are we on a pre-set course--much like my cowlicks--in which we follow a pattern established when life began?

It's a question as old as thought itself, with answers to match the number of years it's been discussed. What do you think? I'd love to hear from you.