Fate: How to Play? Who Is the True Player of Life?

Translated by AI

Is Fate Fun?

Thinking about fate inevitably brings up the classic movie starring Adam Sandler, "Click." In it, the protagonist, Newman, is an architect eager to become a partner at his firm to provide a better life for his family. However, he constantly prioritizes work over family, even though he has a stunning wife, adorable children, and loving parents. To him, everything seems permanently secure and unchangeable. By chance, he acquires a universal remote that allows him to skip all "time-wasting" activities like traffic jams, spousal arguments, bathing, and even foreplay.

While he's absorbed in the fast-forward function, he indeed bypasses annoying tasks and painful experiences, but he also misses out on witnessing his children's growth and making crucial decisions. The remote even memorizes these frequently used features as preset functions, automatically activating during critical moments.

In an instant, he becomes a partner. In an instant, his children grow up, and they're estranged. In an instant, his lovely wife becomes someone else's partner. In an instant, he turns into an unhealthy obese man. In an instant, his father passes away. These countless regretful moments awaken him, prompting him to make amends in his remaining years, endeavor to remind his beloved son to prioritize family, until eventually, he also departs from this world.

After his epiphany, everything rewinds to the megastore where he obtained the remote, as if it were just a dream. This story holds the promise of new beginnings and possibilities.

This is Newman's journey. Although none of us possess such a magical universal remote, do some parts of the story feel familiar? The challenge of life lies in "either advancing or regressing," with time relentlessly pushing forward, coupled with insatiable desires forcing us to live tentatively, always looking towards the future while neglecting the present. Perhaps, in the realm of fate, you're also unconsciously operating on preset modes, responding automatically to life without contemplation or wholehearted participation.

Is fate fun? Are you truly playing?

In Life, Are You the Player or an NPC?

An NPC (Non-Player Character) in games typically follows automated patterns, unable to make independent choices or transcend predetermined destinies. When extended to real-life scenarios, NPCs symbolize those who relinquish awareness and engagement in each moment, switching to "automated" reactive modes, responding to life in a disconnected way.

This "autopilot mode" presents a significant challenge for modern individuals, ensnaring them in endless cycles of responsibilities and routines, causing them to forget life's original intent and purpose. Such unconscious living leads to a feeling of dullness, losing passion for life, and being unable to forge deep connections with others, ultimately losing direction. Like Newman in the movie, who developed an automatic "work-first" mode amid his busy life, repeatedly skipping anything perceived as wasting time, eventually becoming unable to escape preset definitions and living as a soulless NPC.

Yes, when one loses active awareness and participation in life, a player can devolve into an NPC.

When we no longer deeply consider every choice, emotion, and challenge in life, we might have already become unconscious NPCs, relinquishing control over our lives. The movie's protagonist undergoes this transformation—once he realizes he can't genuinely control every detail of life, he shifts from an "unconscious NPC state" to an active participant, embracing life's uncertainties and challenges, seizing the opportunity for a fresh start, and living the possibility of a different life.

Awakening is about transforming from an unconscious state to a conscious way of living!

Countless such moments flash by in life. When the desire for change outweighs the autopilot mode, one can awaken in adversity, break through fate's arrangements, reclaim control, and return to being a player. Otherwise, one may drift through life half-asleep, waking up still on autopilot, continuing to live as an NPC.

Staying Aware: Being a True Player

Everyone risks becoming an NPC in life due to habitual and autopilot modes, and the challenge of destiny lies in maintaining awareness, transforming passivity into activity, and becoming a true player.

Enjoying the game called "Life Intern" requires consciously choosing each moment of life and accepting its uncontrollable aspects. Real growth often comes from breaking free from unconscious autopilot states, returning to the "present," embracing every experience, and engaging in deep introspection. From this perspective, the movie's protagonist ultimately learns to accept his life, no longer seeking to evade pain or control everything, instead participating fully. This journey from "NPC" to "player" symbolizes the path from unconsciousness to self-awareness.