There are a lot of people who are uncomfortable with the randomness of life. People want a reason and a motive for an event that can have no sensible motive. We don’t understand why some things happen. Events that are troubling and essentially random get assigned sometimes to supernatural causes that we don’t understand. Maybe its beyond human understanding. Maybe its just all part of God’s plan. Its not random. God’s in control. Its not scary.
How I met my wife is a good example of a random event. About 60 years ago the Army assigned be to a duty station on Okinawa. One of my friends there talked up a school in Arizona that seemed like it would be interesting. So after discharge from the Army I used the GI bill to go there. One day there in the laundry room I met someone who is now a life long friend. We just happened to be doing laundry at the very same time on the very same day. HIs wife was a nurse at a hospital in Fresno where my future wife was a ward clerk. They set us up for blind date. We met and married 51 years ago.
What counts in life is how you respond to randomness. At several points in the above story I made what turned out to be excellent decisions with the final consequences unknown to me at the time. The one I was most fully aware of was asking her to marry me, and boy, that worked out well for me and my son.
Was Trump fully aware of the consequences of turning his head at the exactly right moment to avoid the killing shot? I don’t think so. Was God’s plan for Tom Cooks to have his parents meet up, get married, and raise a future assassin? I don’t think so. In God’s eye is Tom Cooks less worthy of life than Donald Trump? I don’t think so. What about the former Fire Chief who died defending his family from the bullet that didn’t kill Trump? Was that part of God’s plan? I don’t think so.
So now with a spectacularly random event that Trump’s rabid right supporters are claiming was all God’s plan. A plan that required two people to die and two others to be injured. Praise God Hallelujah amen. That’s not my God. Probably not your God either.
More random stuff will happen between now and November. How we respond is what counts. You, now reading this, don’t know if some act you take will tip the scale, make a difference in the final outcome. There’s much to do. Chances are good that at every turn what you do will add to the final result we want for our country and our future.. Let’s get to work.
