Written: 22nd Feb 2011 | Last Updated: 23rd Feb 2011
One of the things we should always remember - and accept - is that we don't have any control over most of the stuff that happens in life.
It's all very well to be organised, well-meaning, smart, dedicated, serious, kind and concerned...and to always have a plan and even a backup plan...but those attributes and personal management strategies won't stop an earthquake, keep a testy boss from making your job hell, prevent a car crash outside Hungry Jack's or deter a wasp from stinging you on the hand as you take laundry off the line. As Liberal leader Tony Abbott will tell you, shit happens.
Life is what it is - a random series of events that are sometimes...sometimes...influenced by our thoughts, designs and efforts. But isn't that very randomness part of the marvellous mystique...that we aren't in charge? Aren't we meant to be constantly surprised by each unfurling day? Isn't being too drilled, too set and too deliberate just plain boring?
As one surfs the decades - I'm now into my 7th - one begins to see that there is one true constant...that life is a crap shoot. We can be lucky or not, we can find joy or not, we can influence others or bumble along deluding ourselves that we have some significance beyond our physical selves. It's fascinating and depressing, humbling and illuminating all at the same time. It's what makes humans human.
Theoretically, we can be aware, honest, affected, giving, hopeful, generous, curious, decent, inventive, open, good listeners, game without being reckless...and theoretically get on OK.
But is it so? In the crazy crap shoot?
I hope so...and if in doubt, play the bluff.