The Child of Destiny

As happens from generation to generation, a child was born with all of the physical markers that characterized a Child of Destiny.  The child would grow with the extraordinary gifts that would allow it to drive out the dark and corruption that had snuck in since the last Child.  Just like in every tale, there would be quests, prophecies, and strange daring adventures! The child would be able to change the world and usher in a transformed era of creation, innocence, and growth.

The child’s parents promptly bought it destiny-neutral clothing toys and books so that it would not be biased in favor of becoming a world changing hero.

As the child grew, parents, educators, and society gave it role models of potential children of destiny who had done everything but fulfill their destiny.  They told the child it could be anything it wanted, by which they meant stuff that did not involve being a child of destiny.

They called the child failing in its destiny liberation.  They talked about how amazing the world would be when children of destiny didn’t waste their potential by achieving their destiny.

They told the child ordinary people were conspiring to oppress the child and take advantage of it, and discouraged the child to destiny from liking them, but also said that the child should try to be more like ordinary people and less like a child of destiny.  When the child expressed interest in following it’s destiny, they told the child it’s desires had been twisted by a mysterious force called ordinarypersonarchy.

When the child first entered adulthood they told the child how exciting classrooms and office jobs were. When the child expressed unease at not being able to achieve its destiny, they reassured the child it could always try to achieve its destiny later at some vague future date–who would want to waste their youth and vigor on quests and adventures?  They labeled their suggestion “having it all.” They suggested over and over in every way that the shining path of destiny was boring and tedious.

They taught the child to use the physical characteristics that marked it as a child of destiny to excite people, but warned it repeatedly against accidentally embarking on its destiny while doing so.

The dark lord of that generation offered the now-grown child a job as a project manager.  The health insurance benefits were amazing:  free quest-preventative care and heavily subsidized surgical removal of unwanted prophecies.

The child accepted and was miserable.

Every woman is a child of destiny.