"You get married, a child is born or not born, in the middle of the night there is a knocking at the door, on the way home through the park you see a man feeding pigeons, all the tests come in negative and the doctor give you back your life again; incident follows incident helter-skelter leading apparently nowhere, but then once in a while there is the suggestion of purpose, meaning, direction, the suggestion of plot, the suggestion that, however clumsily, your life is trying to tell you something, take you somewhere."(F. Buechner "Listening to Your Life" p. 82)
I don't believe I've had an especially strange life. There seems to be a pattern to it all. There are behaviors that I seem to exhibit in similar cases. There are experiences that seem random at first but seem to fall neatly into a pattern when you step back. Each decision that I've made has had some impact on the narrative that is my life.
As I reflected on Buechner's words for today and image of the orchestra at a play came to mind. Before the conductor arrives each player seems to be fooling around with their instrument. Each one playing random notes, scales or just getting their lips and lungs or limbs ready to perform at their best. Once the conductor arrives and taps the baton, then the randomness stops and wow what comes next is so amazing.
Maybe our lives are like that in some way, mostly random though necessary in order to prepare for those occasional wow moments.
Blessings,
Ed
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