I lost my mom last January and I have been very reflective about it recently. Something unlikely just happened and I thought I would throw it out here.
When I was a teenager, I bought my dad a big book called “The Secret Language of Birthdays.” It includes a two-page profile of every day of the year. My father has always been curious about astrology; as it turns out, the book is based on a database of info and not astrology—but everyone loves to read about themselves and so it’s inherently interesting. We in the family all read our pages and some things, like a horoscope, seemed dead on and some far off. So we read it and forgot it.
My mom, for example. The daily entries include health vulnerabilities. Her birthday profile says people born that day are prone to skeletal and especially back problems. My mom (and her mom) had severe spinal deterioration, and my mom had to have two discs removed and her spine was fused in her 50s. So that was relevant, and back problems are common.
What my mother succumbed to last year was a digestive problem that began after her spine surgery. It was misdiagnosed as a C. diff “superbug” infection and IBS; as it turned out, she had a major bleeding ulcer in her upper digestive system and ulcers in her rectum, and ultimately the hospital was undecided about whether she had ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease—but that is what we lost her to.
The crazy thing: She was only diagnosed with these issues six months before we lost her. I bought that birthday book for my dad in the 90s. In addition to the warning about skeleton problems, my mom’s birthday description says that people born on that day are also prone especially to duodenal ulcers, ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. When we read that decades ago, we would have totally dismissed it. Now, it’s alarming because nobody, including doctors, had any idea that those issues were affecting her until she succumbed to them.
Anyway, it’s just a curiosity. Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis as specific vulnerabilities are pretty rare.
Do you guys believe in predestination, either as relates to the stars or other natural forces, or to date of birth, or just to life paths in general? I’m skeptical to say the least but nevertheless always fascinated by thinking about this stuff.
According to that book, my birthday is “the day of materialized fantasy” and the phrase I am supposed to meditate on is “strange coincidences may be but the normal workings of the universe,” which is perfectly aligned with a default way of thinking for me.