Possibilities and Opportunities

POSSIBILITIES AND OPPORTUNITIES

CL. Mario D’Couto SDB

            We can always drift through our lives passively and not make any contribution to the world or we can do something about it. Each of us is destined for something. God does not create junk and therefore none of us can say that we are ‘good for nothing.’

            Life is always filled with possibilities and opportunities. The difference between them lies in the fact that a possibility involves an ‘either – or’ situation where a thing can be done in many different ways. An opportunity is that which comes at a particular time. For instance, if I have been playing the guitar all along and then suddenly there is an audition for an upcoming rock band, this for me will become an opportunity to make my mark or to prove or show what I have.

            Life has to be lived to the full if ever we want to make sense of it. One way of achieving this is to ask ourselves, ‘Why am I here?’ It is said that one day in the life of the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, he was walking by the pavement and was lost in thought. Suddenly, he accidentally bumps into a good – looking lady. The infuriated lady shouted at him saying, ‘Can’t you see where you are going? Who do you think you are?” to which Schopenhauer replied with a sigh, “Ah! Good Lady! That’s the same question I am trying to ask myself.”


            Viktor Frankl once said, “He who has a ‘Why’ will know how to cope with any ‘how’?” When St. Bernard was a novice, he would always ask himself whenever he would pass by the Chapel, “Bernard, Bernard, why have you come here?” I guess what gives a sense of purpose and direction in our lives is when we are able to answer the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of our existence. That way we would make the best of every possibility or opportunity or at least we will be on the lookout for such occasions. 

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