AN ANCIENT LEGEND tells of a rich Indian merchant who sends his servant to the market. In the marketplace the servant encounters Death, who has a startled look on his face. Terrified, the servant flees to the city of Samarra to escape him. Later, the merchant himself finds Death, and asks him why he frightened his servant. Death explains that his expression was one of surprise at seeing the servant in Baghdad, as he had an appointment with him later that day in Samarra.
It’s a story retold in every episode of the cartoon Road Runner. The antagonist, Wile E Coyote, lays all kinds of traps for the Road Runner, but every trap rebounds on him. No matter where Wile E Coyote runs to in order to watch the trap in action, that’s where the boulder will fall, or the dynamite will explode. Wile E Coyote is constantly running to his own personal Samarra.
Of course, you’ll only believe you can’t avoid your fate if you believe in fate in the first place.
