Destiny

Frida Temmuz 04, 2022

Many months back, when I was feeling particularly down, I picked up Lance Armstrong's autobiography and was so inspired by it, I wanted to do my big by wearing the yellow LIVESTRONG band. I knew they were marketed by Nike, but when I went to the nearest Nike outlet, not only did I not find the band, they seemed unaware of the existance of any such thing. Perhaps I could ask someone who was going abroad to get one for me. I let the matter rest.

A couple of months later, I saw a collegue from another office wearing the wristband. When I asked her where she got it from, she told me that she had been given a pack of five bands of which she had given away only three. She promised to get me a band the next time she came to my office. She came quite a few times after that, but never remembered. The last time I met her, she exclaimed, "Oh god, I have forgotten again."

"That's okay", I assured her. "When it is my time to get the band, I will get it."

"No, didi. I will send it to you through someone else."

"Oh no, don't do that. I would like it more if you give me the band than if you send it to me."

That had been three weeks back.

We had a staff day on Wednesday, and the moment she saw me, she slipped the yellow LIVESTRONG band onto my wrist. "This is for completing the marathon", she said. "When I heard about it, I knew I could not delay giving you the band."

I could not think of a better way of commemorating the completion of the marathon than by sporting a brand new LIVESTRONG band. Even though I was not consciously thinking of Lance Armstrong that day, he is virtually the paton saint of endurance atheletes.

"Didn't I always tell you that the band would come to me when the time was right?", I asked her after giving her a hug. "There could not have been better time, could there?"

I could have got the band from her two months, two weeks, or two days back, and I would have cherished it. Instead I got it at a time when it was invested with more meaning than it could at any other time. Is there any reason for me to not believe in Destiny.