Sorte...

In the venerable Portuguese language, "sorte" is the word designating luck - not the opposite. In the venerable Italian language, the word is "fortuna" - delineating at the same time some sort of riches accumulated, even if in the intangible, when one is "lucky" in this world. Whether one wishes thee "boa sorte" or "buon fortuna" it is certain that they are wishing you the best of luck in your overall endeavours. So that, as the French, now, would say, you might "améliorer votre sort" which means "better your fate" - hence, the words "luck" and "fate" are linked in more ways than one. However, since we are now dabbling in French, there should be made a mention at this time of the expression "mauvais sort" - which designates something else entirely... and leads us to the heart of the matter here. Indeed, "le mauvais sort" is equivalent to the evil eye, more than anything else. It is evidently the absolute opposite of the Portuguese "sorte" and would be hard-pressed to bring anyone "buon fortuna" either...

With all that linguistic knowledge, now, you may appreciate as I did the following, observed online on these early days of 2009...

"Victimes de leur propre sort" - an article about rich and famous people...

Now, if one truly masters the French language, one has to be a tiny wee bit puzzled by this sentence/title... Because, logically, you can be the MASTER of your fate (as in the expression "maîtres de leur propre sort" or 'de leur destinée' for example) or you can be the victim of fate itself when things go awry, awfully awry - but to be the victim of your own fate implies the impossible; self-inflicted evil eye? Someone who should NEVER look in the mirror, thus... Think about it and look at it this way: one's worst enemy would be... oneself? How utterly fascinating and true - most times, but not all the time, no... For, here, there is but one or two cases in which self-sabotage can truly be invoked.

The list of people who would have been so misguided as to cause their own misfortune includes first and foremost one Jocelyne Wildenstein (aka "the catwoman" of plastic surgery and high society alike) but also a large number of artists and thespians: Hunter Tylo, Tori Spelling, Mickey Rourke, Cher, Michael Jackson of course, even Beyoncé herself - to whom we must add the name of a former top model (Kate Moss) and that of a fashionista: Donatella Versace. Each and every one of these has, indeed, 'done it to themselves' pretty much - but can they be blamed for that?

The French language does have its own brand of sarcasm, evidently - and, here, "victimes de leur propre sort" implies that all these individuals have become victimized by their very own fault as much as their status of being rich, immensely wealthy even, truly famous and, thus, privileged enough to be able to afford 1001 unnecessary surgeries, for example... I might be exagerrating, evidently, but M.J. and that catwoman, alone, have raised the average considerably - but that is not the point right now.

The point is this: for these cases, and quite a few more just like them, to always be repertoriated among the gainfully overrated and adulated of this world, is evidence enough that it is absolutely true that they become the victims of their own set of privileges. Those few individual members of the elite have, indeed, self-destructed in a rampant display of many types of self-absorbed abuses. The same sad results are obtained in every other strata of society, though - much less publicized and much less spectacular or obvious, but still every bit as perplexing, if not exactly as avoidable as these could have been... However, could it be that someone else's influence could have played a factor here, too? It could be true, for at least a few of the cases here and, to a greater degree, for many others, much lesser known ones.

It is undeniable that so many do it to themselves indeed: but many are pushed that way, also, by seen, obvious influences as much as by unseen, really not-so evident ones. And no - I am not talking about any pathetic examples of devastating drug use, self-mutilation, mere peer pressure or other mundane abominations of our modern world - no, I do not mean any of those here - not this time.

The worst of the worst of these things can be observed only by the most aware pair of eyes; and only those eyes can see, spot these one-in-a-million cases and tell them apart from all the other self-inflicted  victims of their very own twisted fate or "victimes de leur propre sort" cases...

For not everyone is their own worst enemy - some become it when goaded into that by others; and that is not peer pressure, that is being manipulated in the most machiavellian way - such a way that leads to one's self-destruction (or self-derision) all for the amusement of the other, whom one could have considered a friend, at first. And then there are the most insidious cases of all, those unlucky individuals who see their appearance transform itself over the years, without any apparent reason, rhyme or reason. Transformations that stun as much as Rourke's bloatedness (be it Mickey's or Heather O'Rourke's - we'll differenciate in a second) and Jocelyne's turn for the worst (Wildenstein getting so "wilde" that immediate comparisons to Frankenstein were inevitable - at pretty much any public appearance that she's been making ever since, poor her.)

These sort of transformations, supposedly "all natural" or voluntarily orchestrated in the most artificial and plastic way, are anything but simply that, in either possible case, sometimes...

The little girl from Poltergeist, Heather O'Rourke, became so bloated going into her teens she looked like a little old lady rather than a typical teenager. That was not natural nor normal. That was not her will or due to her own doing, either. Many theories about it have circulated, reinforced by the fact that she died shortly thereafter. She got misdiagnosed and mistreated by a team of doctors, as it so often happens, her condition worsened and she was overworked when what she really needed was to be prescribed some rest...? That is quite possible. Or, as the other popular theory has it, the ghosts had taken a likeness to the movies' storyline and enacted it in real life, with the movie's main protagonist herself... Now, is that possible?

Yes, it is possible too.

Why is it possible - and how?

Because - the world of the invisible is so vast, much more so than the tangible, physical, material world.

The spiritual world is everywhere - if you accept the fact that life energy does not evaporate when physical death occurs; because no energy simply dissipates - that is proven. 

You have no idea how vast it is - and what horrors it contains.

For a "monster" in our world is someone who committed horrible acts, usually - yet he or she remains basically coated up in a human shell, not a horribly disfigured shell at all. Woe to those who dub "monsters" those who have become disfigured physically due to some accident or crippling illness. The true monsters are wolves in sheep's clothing; never just forget that overnight nor feign to have forgotten it.

Monsters such as Jeffrey Dahmer and Andrei Chikatilo, for example, remained physically pleasant to the eye, despite the accumulation of heinous acts that they had perpetrated. Dahmer is a telling example indeed. If you didn't know what he'd done, you would like him best over any number of genuine good guys who happened to lack the charm, the dash, the suave quality that Dahmer could be deemed to have in spades.

And yet his soul was and is the most horrible creature that anyone could behold - if you could see into the spiritual world, that is...

Can I see into the spiritual world, you ask? Not that I'm aware of, no...

But I have imagination - and as Einstein said it, it is greater than knowledge.

I also have knowledge though: the knowledge that there is a spiritual world. The knowledge that death is not the end. The knowledge that the other side is greatly affecting our side of reality each and every day of our lives. The knowledge that, sometimes, we do behold tiny bits of glimpses from that other side, we do see what is beyond - we simply do not know what we are seeing...

And luck has nothing to do with that.

Boa sorte!

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