Opus 2023-179: Gold Ring Still Offered

For some reason I was thinking of the dentist and oral hygiene.  Maybe I was grateful for my last report from the dentist.  Maybe it was the new Oral B electric toothbrush.  Maybe I had a popcorn hull stuck under my gum.  Who knows.

It struck me that there are two major factors involving tooth decay:  Natural processes and personal discipline, things you can’t control and things you can.  At one end you have genetics and the capricious chance that determines how healthy your teeth are.  At the other end there is your discipline at brushing and flossing along with regular trips to the dentist.

There is nothing you can do about one but you can encourage it or discourage.  The other is totally in your lap.  If you live on sweets and never brush you can expect certain results down the road.

How like life.  When I have these kind of thoughts I always look at the pattern and see it duplicated in every day experience.  There is absolutely nothing I could do about my birth:  Parents, location, timing and conditions around me were concepts I could not even comprehend, let alone influence.  Down through life there have been many similar situations.  There have also been many choices I have made that have consequences.  

There was a prayer I have mentioned before about things we can and cannot change and the wisdom to know the difference.  It occurs to me that the clever statement never grows old.  I am past my 70th birthday and I still find that my future depends on the same two factors.  I cannot just give up and say, “What will be, will be.”  I must continue to engage my world and act like it makes a difference.  All of us in the upper years need to realize that the choices we make will influence not just us but our children and grandchildren.  If you have no family, consider your neighbors.

Stay in the race.  Go for the gold ring.  This may be your day.

homo unius libri