Legal Eagles

Today I went to a law seminar in Minneapolis. It was ok...it was a school law seminar and most of it I had already heard in other workshops, so much of it was review. SO...I left early. There, that's my law story. :-)

That means I need to have something to talk about then. I'm not sure what I have to say today. Probably that life sometimes is predictable, and most of the time, life is not predictable at all. Take for instance, I thought it was supposed to rain today. The weather people predicted rain. It rained in Grand Rapids...but it didn't really rain down here. Maybe a few sprinkles. That really pissed me off because I had put off washing my car because I thought, hey, it's gonna rain anyway! So unpredictable.

Also, how can you predict when you'll get hurt? I certainly never predicted the morning I lost my left big toenail. How could I have known that I would rip that sucker off by a couch-moving mishap?

I think sometimes the strength of our character comes to light by the unpredictable events that happen. I don't think that is insightful or new; many people would agree and many plaques you can buy at the craft stores agree as well. But maybe I should talk about the predictable things.

Predictable things can be comforting or they can be mundane and boring. Predictability has an element of control; if we can predict what will happen, then we are in control -or at least we FEEL like we are in control and sometimes the FEELING of being in control is just as good as the REALITY of being in control.

Predicting outcomes also involves trust. When we are predicting things, we are trusting that things will turn out the way we have predicted or the way we believe has been predicted by someone else.

Predictability is also very comforting. It's comforting to know that something will always be the way it's always been, someone will always be there, events will always turn out a certain way, people will react a certain way, it will most always rain when the atmosphere is in a certain state. I think that's why horoscopes and other prediction vehicles are so popular. There's comfort in knowing and comfort in BELIEVING you might know because you predict it.

So predictability can be a good thing or an annoying thing because you know? Sometimes, who wants life to be all that predictable anyway??