Chance vs Certainty

In my impressionable years one man who caught the attention of media was Dr. Albert Schweitzer of Lambarene.
The young Albert once got into a fight and knocked down his opponent. The boy told Albert that it would have ended differently had he been as well nourished as he was. It must have touched him deeply that later in the evening when he came to sup with the family he left his soup untouched. What the boy had said still rankled.
He was privileged while the other was underprivileged.
This revelation marked a definite break with his past and so did his sense of values. He became a caring person.
Even where he excelled in his intellectual achievements they were to be used in service of others. At 26 he had a triple Ph.D.
Whenever Dr. Schweitzer needed money during his stint in Africa he went on tour and gave concerts and talks. But what connects the son of a Lutheran pastor in upper Alsace to Congo?
As a child Albert had often wondered at a statue of a Negro, strong in body but head bowed and in chains. It made an impact on him. Of course the fight was the catalyst. It spurred him to refer to his memory, his past experience to take cues. (One cannot discount the role of chance. But what is chance to any one who is mindful of living with time distorted before him or her.) He knew Time was of the essence.

Against the reality of Time chance is a reminder to straighten out his or her attitude to time. Certainty is ‘chance’ set into right perspective.
2.
What made him decide to become a medical Missionary was due to a Paris Missionary society report, which he came across as if by chance. Thereupon he settled for Lambarene, in the heart of Africa. Where mind of man is colored by collective memory and of Time, chance must, so it seems to me, lose some of its mystery.
benny

Life's Fatal Gift

If our lives are a succession of trivial pursuits how come we still hold onto our lives as though life were the most precious gift?
Let me briefly write from the life of a king. Albert I of Belgium.
Born Albert Léopold Clément Marie Meinrad in Brussels, he was the fifth child and second son of Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders, and his wife, Princess Marie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. Albert grew up in the Palace of Flanders, initially as fourth in the line of succession to the Belgian throne. Under normal circumstances Albert didn’t stand ghost of a chance to sit on the throne. However, the only son of his uncle, Leopold II, died as a child, and Albert's older brother, Prince Baudouin of Belgium, who had been subsequently prepared for the throne, also died young, Albert, at the age of 16, unexpectedly became the Heir-Presumptive to the Belgian Crown. We are connected and it gives life dimensions that are incalculable.
2.
Life sucks and also throws surprises that none may predict. Dame J.K Rowlings was once on welfare but now with the life’s ambition fairly in her grasp with the runaway success of Harry Potter series, do you think she was meant to settle for anything less? Her difficulties were as with any other of not connecting with what life signified, on a proper footing.
Our lives are a succession of trivial pursuits and in that linear progression from one day to another there is something exponential that catapults some to higher plane. Since examples of millions of lives show such a higher ground are we not living far below our full potential?
Tailspin: In the case of the author of Harry Potter I said, ‘life’s ambition fairly in her grasp’ and let me explain. Unless she tries next her hand to produce something better than Harry Potter what she is? A has been. Life prompts you to set still higher goals as long as you are able. We shall not have plumbed our full power till Death stops us from trying.
benny