A Thousand to One
A Warning
One love, one life
When it's one need in the night
One love, we get to share it
Leaves you baby if you don't care for it…One love, one blood
One life, you got to do what you should
One life, with each other
Sisters, brothersOne life but we're not the same
We get to carry each other, carry each other
One
One—U2
Above: What would past you think of present you?
There is a funny calculus to existence.
We control nothing, but influence everything.
Though wonderful, this life is horribly limited.
Out of many maybes, you only get one certainty.
To take one path is to pass another by.
Each yes necessarily means a thousand nos.
A thousand books you’ll never read.
A thousand trips you’ll never take.
A thousand meals you’ll never taste.
A thousand sounds you’ll never hear.
A thousand sights you’ll never see.
A thousand smells you’ll never smell.
A thousand things you’ll never touch.
A thousand jobs you’ll never work.
A thousand smiles you’ll never flash.
A thousand tears you’ll never shed.
A thousand strangers you’ll never meet.
A thousand loves you’ll never marry.
A thousand children you’ll never have.
A thousand goodbyes you’ll never say.
A thousand deaths you’ll never die.
A thousand lives you’ll never live.
The world isn’t some devious design dropped down from on high, but the aggregate outcome of innumerable individual decisions.
Somewhere you made a choice.
It all led to this.
The science is exact, the accounting painstaking.
The mark is made, the shape is drawn.
No line can be erased.
But we cannot simply sit and stare at where we’ve been.
There are wonders that lie ahead.
Every moment in your life is a turning; each one a choosing.
Etymologically, intelligence (inter—between; legere—to choose) means “choosing between.”
You must choose fast and choose well as judge and jury of your fate. Don’t send it to a premature Hell.
Hell isn’t just a place in the afterlife.
Hell is seeing the better you that you could have been tomorrow had you done something yesterday.
Per my about page, White Noise is a work of experimentation. I view it as a sort of thinking aloud, a stress testing of my nascent ideas. Through it, I hope to sharpen my opinions against the whetstone of other people’s feedback, commentary, and input.
If you want to discuss any of the ideas or musings mentioned above or have any books, papers, or links that you think would be interesting to share on a future edition of White Noise, please reach out to me by replying to this email or following me on Twitter X.
With sincere gratitude,
Tom
I reference that tom urban graphic so often
Love this