Everything Happens by Accident

My boss keeps reminding me and my fellow managers that nothing happens by itself. Somebody must have flicked a switch, pushed a button, literally or metaphorically, for things to get in motion.

It's a nice notion that somewhere along the line, there was somebody responsible for something that happened. Of course, it may not be a nice thing, and that somebody who was deemed to have "flicked the switch" or "pushed the button" may not want to take any credit for doing so.

But, more often than not, we can't really pin point the start of something. There's always something else that leads to another and we find it's impossible to separate the end of one incident and the start of another.

What riles me the most is when somebody takes credit to say, "I saw that coming." That's a load of bull, because nobody ever saw it (whatever the it is) coming. From the a death in the family right to the credit crunch, culminating in the fall of giants like the Lehman Brothers, somebody will come forth and say, yes we predicted this and that's why we did something five years ago.... please..... Even, the greatest inventions of the world, from the wheel to the internet, can be traced to a single point of a chance discovery... a mistake, or an accident.

I believe that the human mind is limited to it's experience, i.e. what it's seen, heard, felt in the past. Note how the most creative minds in Hollywood create supposedly "out of this world" creatures that look like an insect, or a lizard... something very much of this world but distorted somewhat. So, to actually create something new, we need to be inspired, by something we saw, heard or felt.

Of course, in order to achieve whatever we desire in this world, we need to have a direction. And, that's all that we can really do... to face the right direction. Even, the best sportsmen and women in the world agree that the moment the ball (football or baseball or basketball, you name it) leave your hand or feet, it is out of your control and the best you can do is hope...and pray.... that you've done enough to make go the way you want it.

Nothing happens by itself? But if we do nothing, something will happen anyway.... right?

Master Uguay said in Kung Fu Panda... There are no accidents.....

Comments

Pak Mat Beca

I started school in 1971. I went to Sekolah Ismail (Dua), as far as I am concerned the only primary school in the whole universe and every kid must go there or the government will put their parents away forever. The "Dua" or Two (2), does not mean there were two Sekolah Ismails. There was only one, except that there were two sessions, morning and afternoon. When I started in standard one, I was in the morning session. Apparently, somehow, the two Ismails alternate, and I really can't recall ever having to go to school in the afternoon. Every morning, my cousin, the late Hashimah Hashim (Allah bless her soul), and I would wait for Pak Mat to pick us up in his beca, his trishaw. And, until I changed school in 1976 (that's another story to tell), Pak Mat and his beca would take me to school every school day. I know of no other way to go to school and I did not really appreciate the distance that Pak Mat had to cycle to pick us up and send us to our respective s...

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