A painting by the artist James Foort called: Fate, Chance, Choice, and Time

Fate, Chance, Choice, and Time

Four people stand at posts that direct attention to the four factors facing everyone. The egg being fertilized is obvious, red, rich and receptive; on the blue background. The cloud of sperm surrounding the egg, jostle each other, drawn to a biological certainty that there will be one successful in the fateful race. Therein lies our fate; the top left figure. Born poor; stay poor? Be rich; stay rich? Have a tumultuous life? Stay in a state of strife? Take advantage of possibilities? Give up from knowing what a hazy past suggests? Every generation depends on previous ones, announced in the biblical observation - unto the seventh generation. Struggle or be passive or anything in between if conditions demand it, take your luck, take your time and go as the tide of life goes, bucking it if it’s worth it, remembering that for some, without intervention, fate is likely sealed. The right-top figure represents chance ‐ gambling, stock market manipulations, casinos and the like, even gambling with fate, tempted by wishful thinking. When there is no information as a guide, give that thought. Ones who like the thrill of chances taken, think “try”. Why not? But the selection of winners is calculated in the gains of operators. Winning is random, the amount fixed; who wins is chance. The third figure, bottom right, suggests choice ‐ searching for prospects, taking the best path to follow, taking your time and taking your lumps. Try again if you fail; a learning experience. Best of all, set a course that makes for comfort because you love to do what you have chosen to do and are committed to continue to do it. Figure four, bottom left, represents time. Time is the final arbiter of possibilities. Debris descending down the blue chute says it. Certainty of death makes the third option best if the end of life is recognized and accepted.

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Works and writing by James Foort