Serendipity

Plans.

In an age of Mckinsey and cellphones, they are inescapable. Goals, milestones, timelines. The shelves at Barnes and Nobles are filled with well-intentioned books taht help you plan your life -how to find a husband in 30 days, how to be a millionaire, how to be CEO by the age of 40, five steps to emotional healing. There are self-help groups even for eight year olds which starts by saying "your parents got divorced - don't worry, here's how you can deal with it." And get this – there are self-help books for writing self-help books. There is no room for doubt here. It’s not for the faint hearted – there is one book that says, “why your life sucks and what you can do about it. " For every problem, there is a solution – all it takes is a plan.

But the best laid plans of mice and men sometimes go awry ….because no matter how hard you try or how meticulous you might be, you just never know where life will take you. I am not against planning per se. I am not advocating sitting on your butt and not doing anything. Sure, you need a plan if you want to save for your kid’s college or if you to want start your own business. But to believe that for all of life’s twists and turns, there is plan - is hubris. Because beyond all of us, there is a divine plan. A universe that has a mind of its own.

And sometimes in the minutiae of our plans, we lose our dreams. As an MBA type will tell you, plans need to be sensible and practical. But as any dreamer will tell you, dreams only need a wing and a prayer. Dreams allow us to indulge our mad passions, our insane aspirations. Dreams. They course through our veins like a mighty river. They let you believe in the infinite possibilities of life. Possibilities that are not bound by reason or rationality.

The tyranny of planning is almost pervasive. When we are not busy making grand plans about our life, we obsess about planning our every waking minute. We make checklists and to-do lists and schedules – because nothing can be left unaccounted for. What are your plans for this weekend is a common phrase in this part of the world – so we plan to meet our friends for lunch, we plan to go hiking, we plan to watch a movie. There are certain things that need plans – budgets, projects, meetings – but a Sunday morning is not one of them. Unless it’s a weekend expedition to the Antarctic – do you really need an itinerary? Aren’t weekends supposed to be easy – a time to kick back and hang loose. At times, we should perhaps let go and just be. And maybe life will quietly surprise us.

Was it John Lennon who said – life is what happens, when we are busy making other plans?
Serendipity. It’s a wonderful thing.