a Journey

"... she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops."

Perhaps we all try to make sense of the mess in our lives better through retail therapy. Maybe the new pair of heels will help heal my bruised ego. Perhaps the stuffed toy will help me with my troubled sleep. And so we go.

Kurt Vonnegut speaks of Billy Pilgrim, you could "carve a better man out of a banana", and how sometimes, Life just happens. Pilgrim's survival of the Dresden bombings whilst the remaining 85% of the city was consumed in a fireball, wasn't because of any brave act of his. He was fortunate enough to be in a deep enough cellar beneath his prison-Slaughterhouse 5 whilst the fireball consumed everything and anything organic in its path. Pilgrim didn't melt in the human microwave, simply 'cos he was at the right place at the right time.

For all the talk of freewill, how much of Life is really up to us? And for all the silver of opportunities that we really get to choose -- Do we even try?