Do you belive in providence?

Because you are seeking those answers. I have the same experience, getting lessons out of situations and people I never even dreamed could teach me or anyone else anything.
As I see it, there is an abundance of answers all around us. We just go around picking the ones we need, because those are the only ones we truly see. Unless we're to preoccupied by the question. Questions come of ignorance. To focus too much on the question is to focus on one's own ignorance rather than the way to end it.

The opposite of Providence in this context, with a capital P, might be Damnation or even Cursed.

I'm surprised that Aidan thinks that Providence is proven by the existence of people born to poor pathetic beginnings that are not her.?!?
So Providence guides her, but not them?

Yeah, that's exactly what I was trying to say, although I guess I didn't do a very good job. How can I view what seems like good luck to me as providence without also ascribing its opposite to those who do not have good luck? And that's where it all gets kind of sticky for me. I'd hate to think anyone was born damned or cursed, but as a recent example- that little baby who was starved to death by his vegan parents- what do you call what happened to him?

He's born to these people who are stupid and cruel enough to do this to him, so not only is his existence doomed from the start- his short time on earth is full of pain- infants can't even begin to digest what those parents were feeding him- can you even imagine the constant excruciating pain that child must have been in? So what do you call
that- simply unlucky? It seems like there should be another word.

Doomed and cursed would fit, but WHY- and why HIM?

These kind of incidents are what make me step back from embracing the idea of an omnipotent god figure wholeheartedly.
I find it hard not to give thanks for my good luck or providence though. And I call it that, because I know that I don't deserve it moreso than any other human on the earth- I didn't do anything to earn it. That's the only reason I think of it as providential or to use another word - Grace.
But I have trouble understanding why it can't be more evenly distributed.

Thanks Aidan. I like the way you think "on paper" as it were. It's very open and honest.

Thanks Eorl- from what I've read, I'd say the same about you.