Since we are going on about paradoxes, there is one special paradox that certainly deserves a mention, and without it these rambles would be incomplete. Actually, they are two paradoxical school of thoughts that survive till this date. Its the paradox of fate and free will.

One says that everything is predetermined and follows a certain course of events, the other claims that everything happens due to our actions and is in the random control of our will. Now, its easy to defy fate, I simply raise my finger and put it down, saying that this action was an act of my random free will. But what if that was predetermined too? And if I now don't move my finger, was that in the predetermined course of events of fate as well? And thus we go on to infinite regressions, wherein whatever act we do to establish our free will and defy fate, was already a predetermined act in the book of fate too.

Yet, if we look around ourselves, doesn't everything look as if its impacted by free will? If I chose not to write this work, I will not write this work come what may, even if the book of fate says so. Whatever course our lives take, is it not impacted by the actions we choose to do? Indeed, there are so many who seem destined to become something, but end up becoming something else. Take the example of Lord Buddha, a prince destined to be a king, ended up becoming a great spiritual leader. Or take Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India, who was once a tea-seller. Proponents of fate would argue that they were indeed destined to become what they have become, but it can be seen without their free, unwavering will they wouldn't reached the top. Indeed, by saying it was fate we may be undermining their achievements and hard work.

But if everything is in a state of constant flux, it implies that the future, indeed, hasn't been made yet. That means that time-travel wouldn't be possible without experiencing passage of time yourself as well, whether it be at the current rate of 1s/s or faster; yet if in the faraway future it is done without doing so (paradoxical sentence), like time-traveling through a portal, will it disprove the existence of free will? Would it mean that we are all following some predetermined plan of fate that we can't change, that we are destined to walk on?

No, perhaps it wouldn't. For the theory of multiple timelines reconciles these two beliefs to some extent. It states that for each possible course of events, there are different timelines and infinite parallel universes existing. In these universes the timelines could have major differences, such as Hitler winning the world war, or minor ones such as me eating toast for breakfast instead of cereal. I would like to believe that if we do something that didn't suit the probability factor of our timeline, we'll be able to switch timelines without even knowing it. However, it is hard to know whether we are trapped to our respective timelines, or able to travel across it based on our actions of free will.

Nevertheless, whatever the outcome is, predetermined or not, there is a visible direct correlation between our actions and their outcomes. Destined or not, one needs to work to achieve what they want to achieve. And so, it is my destiny, my fate, and my free will to become the lazy one, come what may. Do your best, world, I refuse to work for you, or even for myself. Ha, here I make tall claims, yet I work so much anyway. Such is the fate of the aboveground man.