Choices, fate and fortune–all of those play a hand. We become who we are; we live within a social strata; we desire according to our wants, we marry, procreate, parent, live and die in the whimsical nature of birth, opportunity and directions taken.
In “The Divine Comedy,” Dante was given the poet, Virgil, as a guide on his journey into the circle of hell. Factually, in all our development, we have been given guides. The list is endless: parents, grandparents, high school janitors, teachers, neighbors, grocery clerks, drill sergeants. All these people offered guidance to me. How I listened or ignored and structured my life in response were personal choices.

Prideful people who claim ‘bootstrap’ achievements neglect the circumstance of birth and the ecosystem in which they arrive. All of us devolve from pairings of male and female from time immemorial. The ecosystem in which we arrive molds our behaviors. We wither, prosper or subsist based on choices we make. Granted, there are those who are genetically gifted: they make better decisions, they perceive deeper meanings, they are better adapted to navigate life. All of us, including those born into wealth or poverty, including geniuses and feeble minded, including those of us given guides or swept sea without any beacons–everyone makes choices.

Some of us are lucky; some of us are not.