You’ll have to read the first part of Seth Godin’s post to get how Goldie Hawn fits into this quote.
Unpredictable isn’t precisely the same as random. We can certainly make dumb choices, we can suffer from being unprepared, we can be the victim of bad judgment too. The essential thing to remember, though, is that every project is the work of a thousand generations, of decisions leading to decisions, of the unpredictable outcomes that come from human interactions. Given how unlikely it is that we’d predict Goldie Hawn, the best posture is obvious: Assume that your plans are wrong.
Expect that you’ll be surprised. ~ Seth Godin
But I’ve been thinking about it since I read it early this morning.
Thinking about how a choice I make right now in this moment could affect someone’s life a hundred years from now.
Like what if I decide to go downstairs and throw another log on the fire, but I miss the last two steps and fall. I break my foot (been there, done that), so I have to crawl back upstairs and call for help. And so my daughter comes to take me to the emergency room, and on the way she turns on the radio to take my mind off the pain. And right at that moment the disc jockey announces that the fourth person to call will win an all-expenses-paid trip for two to the Holy Land. And so we call, and we win, and because my daughter feels sorry I’m in so much pain, she gives both tickets to me so my husband and I can go–after my foot heals, of course. And on the way to the airport (and we leave in the wee dark hours so we don’t miss our flight), we witness an accident on the freeway. We stop and pull a woman and her young daughter to safety just before the car explodes. And years later, that young girl goes on to become the first woman president of the United States.
Because I decided to go downstairs and throw another log on the fire, I get to realize a life-long dream and have a part to play in the history of our country. Who could predict that?
And what if I decide to sit down one morning and sweat onto a screen and dare to publish. And what if those words I share sit somewhere in space and one day drop into someone else’s screen. And what if that someone else is having a bad day or carries a lifetime of hurt. And what if what I wrote hours or days or years before makes that someone else laugh or cry or somehow soothes a fresh wound or wilted spirit or instills new hope. What might happen to that someone else if I decide not to sit at the screen today?
And so I write…
How might a choice you make today affect someone else’s life tomorrow, next week, next year, or a hundred years from now?
Still writing,
Sandy
Being brave with Lisa-Jo on the word prompt–write.
And with Holley–because maybe you need to hear that your words matter.
So speak them. Write them.
And with Emily–because this prose is most definitely imperfect
but maybe somehow redemptive.
Yes. What if. I just love this. I love the thought that simple obedience to a small task can ripple into an effect that effects generations. I needed to here this. Thanks for stoping by my page earlier and thanks for your words. I’ll be back!!! – Heather
wow, beautiful words that inspire my soul to write my God story. thank you. t
you captured this so well, Sandy. I know the words of people I’ve never met have saved me more than once, then other lives are changed as I live out those words or share them or meditate on them.
I’m thinking the life change comes as we decide to do the writing itself. We are changed.
But I think you may have already said that….
Lovely photos and encouraging words. Only God knows the end result of our “what if.”
I just heard a story of John Woolman (itinerant Quaker minister in 1700s) in this morning’s sermon:
John felt called to preach to a logging camp, but when he arrived all the men were gone for the day. He still felt compelled to speak , and so he did. He found out years later that one logger remained in camp, too sick to work. Hearing John Woolman’s words that day, he came to Christ.
We may never know on this side of heaven where our words will go.