The Flexibility Of Reality Is A Hard Thing To See - Grasshopper

"Life living us," on first blush, may seem like predestination to some. It's helpful to notice there is a difference between the notions of predestination and reality. Predestination presupposes that life is rigidly, divinely planned without recourse. Conversely, reality happens without warning and without a specific plan, but contains the option of response to create a new, undetermined reality.

The people who think they live life are in the deepest do-do because they think they can specifically shape the reality of their lives. You will easily recognize them by the amount of frustration they display and the number of antacids and tranquilizing drugs they take, and amount of alcohol they consume.

But even if you accept that "life lives you," you're not completely out of the woods. Many people who accept that "life is living them," automatically conclude that their human circumstances are predestined by something. Let's call it God's plan. They overlook that their personal actions contribute to this "predetermined" route.

I believe that reality is not predetermined at all, but a giant ball of flexibility that responds to the actions we take. Reminds me of a story . . .

My step father was a lovable, good-natured dreamer. He had plans and schemes that always looked good on paper, even if he never wrote them down. Like many full time dreamers, he had both feet in the clouds. Like many people of this type, he had a leaning towards gluttony in many areas. He was attempting to fill an emptiness that couldn't be satisfied. He ate, as my mother described it, as if he had "two a**holes."

He developed colon cancer and it claimed his life. My mother was quick to point out it was predetermined by heredity. There was no other colon cancer in his family that she could cite, but she needed an explanation. "I guess the man upstairs just took him because it was his time" was her other often stated position on his death. Never did she, or would she, consider that he contributed to his demise by his insatiable appetite.

I can't tell you how many smokers I've spoken to over the years that say their emphysema or throat and lung cancer was God's will. That's pure "Predeterminism," and it doesn't match up with flexible reality.

Life is an energetic force that moves us along a continuum known as a human lifetime. Before we lived and after we die, life animates all living forms without a master plan. There does seem to be an overall strategy of expansion and contraction, but there are no planned tactics. That's where we come in.

When reality enters our human life, we have the option to react or respond. When we predictably react, we insure that reality moves in the same direction. When we respond, reality contracts and recalculates the new variables that responding puts forth, and delivers a new reality. Reaction causes more of the same; response demonstrates the plasticity of reality.

As brilliantly pointed out in a film for the ages, Star Wars ,"The Force" doesn't care how it's used. It's there animating us to do either what we are patterned to do, or what we choose to do. Life lives us, and our response to life's realities helps us shape new realities.

We can't predict the future circumstances of our life with certainty, but we can keep ourselves from traveling along the same path. We do this when we recognize that we can outgrow our patterned reactions to reality and choose a response. When you react, there is no choice, only programming.

Many people don't get to this choice point until they hit bottom or have had enough. If you believe you're living in the dark well of predetermination, you're not likely to glimpse the light. But if you hit bottom, some cracks in the foundation occur that let some of that light in. That's a hard way home.

But if you come to the realization that you've had enough, you can recognize the flexibility of reality and choose right now before the predetermined choice is made for you - again.

Into each life reality will fall. Where it goes after it lands in your lap is up to you. You can get more of the same by reacting as you have in the past, or you can choose a new response and see what new reality you can create.

I'm willing to accept this much of predetermination. We have a battery that's designed to last a lifetime. The use of your battery determines how peaceful your life can be, and in many cases, how much longer that battery can last.

If you rage against reality, plan on a short, tumultuous earthly visit. If you respond to reality, you still don't get a guarantee on how long you'll be here, but you'll be making the best of the life that's living you.

If you're searching for a motto, may I suggest this one:

"I choose flexibility

every day that life lives me."

All the best,

John