Where Fate and Free Will Collide

I just read a thought provoking book written by my lifelong friend Peter Delani. Peter is a Vice Principal at Masconomet Regional High School in Masssachusetts and was formerly their varsity baseball coach. I am really proud of Peter and his accomplishments. He is a great friend and an accomplished teacher. He has not only coached a lot of people through life but he has actually led his varsity baseball team to the state championship. He is innovative, entrepenuerial and now a budding author and public speaker.

Here is the books description from Amazon:

A Walk With Daimon is one man's intimate journey of self-discovery from childhood to manhood. Both beautiful and tragic, instead of trying to fix his life story, Delani embraces both the wins and losses of each season by navigating through the critical moments in his life where fate and free will collide. Along the way, Delani comes to terms with having been born the "healthy" son, learns the valuable lesson that poverty is a condition of the soul, not the wallet, and experiences firsthand that the glory of being reborn means that you first must die. Delani invites the reader to take a walk with him as his invisible soul leads him back home to where his story began. A Walk With Daimon is a story of fate, calling, and destiny. It inspires each one of us to walk our own field of dreams.


The book really resonated with me. The theme of the book is about how you respond when fate and free will collide. The book is based on Peters life and his experiences growing up in Wakefield, Massachusetts. (Which happens to be my home town as well.) With Peter being a classmate of mine, his book often mentioned people and places that I was extremely familiar with. His life story was also familiar to me. I have been an observer and sometimes participant in his life's success's' and failures. To me, reading the book was like scrolling through my memories of past events and instead of having the details fade as they normally do over time, they became more vivid with his descriptions.

I read the book in its entirety last night. Starting around six pm and ending around midnight. Its a fast read and I was hooked on the book after reading the first chapter. Its had the feel of Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom, only in my case there was the hook of a personal connection.

Anyone who grew up in Massachusetts during the 70's and 80's , or played a sport as a child or teenager, who has lived with an ill or handicapped family member, or who is experiencing a low point in their life will greatly benefit from reading this book.

After I read it, I went to bed, or tried to. As you know we farmers are up at the crack of dawn, so anytime I am up after 10pm I get a little anxious. Well wouldn't you know Peters book had my mind racing about my own life experiences. Once I finally fell asleep, my dreams were dominated by my life experiences and my hometown. Believe me I had one restless sleep.

How do you give a book a great review? You tell folks that when you picked it up and started reading it you could not put it down, and that as you were reading it it resonated with you, and after you were done reading it you could not sleep, and once you fell asleep it provoked strange dreams about watershed moments in your life, and finally when you woke up , you were writing about it in your blog.

Give the book a shot. It may do for you what it did for me. How did you respond when fate and free will collided? Can you think of certain times in your life when a situation was extremely difficult personally. Something major like the death or illness of someone close, or the end of a job or career, or a divorce or break up? What did you do? How did you react? What was the result? I think I could write a seperate blog, or perhaps a book on my life struggles. Could you?

In all aspects of my life the biggest advances came after the greatest setbacks. Sometimes my calamities were so major that it took me a few years to recover, other times I was able to shake off the pain and get right back on my feet. Its easy to slide into a funk during and after a challenging situation in your life, but the more times you respond and fight back, (and the older and more experienced that you become..) the more you realize that Peter's theme is correct.

I had a basketball coach in high school whose famous saying was that you could never score a basket if the ball was not up on the rim. In other words, don't worry about missing the shot, unless you shoot your never going to score.

As an entrepenuer, that is your mantra. Most of these quotes mean the same thing and we have all heard them before. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained","if at first you don't succeed, try, try again", "fortune sides with him who dares","risk not, want not." I have had many major setbacks and victories in business. Some of them where in my control and others were not. As a CEO you create the vision , develop a plan and hire the best folks that you can to help you achieve your goals. ( Free will) The things that you can not control like the economy or the price of oil, or the availabilty of cash can intervene on the best business idea. (Fate)After every setback, I tried to quickly get up and throw the ball back up on the rim. Hoping that I would score.

As a farmer, like in business, most everything that you do is a calculated risk for a desired return. You plant crops in hopes of a succesful harvest and eventual sale of the bounty. You raise animals with the hope of a healthy herd that will eventually feed you and your community. Your responsiblity is to make sure that your crops and critters get all of the help that you can possibly give them. Clean fresh water, good solid nutrition, clean living conditions and love. (Free will)The wild card in the equation is mother nature....floods, sickness, predators (theft) all can effect the success of your enterprise. (Fate) The farmers who are succesful wipe the manure off of their pants and start over. Hopefully learning from their experiences and becoming better at their craft.

Here are some things to think about. Who knows but you may be developing you own crisis exit strategy as you ponder the questions.

At a point of crisis or emergency, where free will and fate collide, how will you respond? How will your business respond? How will your community or your country respond?

Our world is in crisis, our nation is in a crisis, and around these parts I know a lot of families are in crisis. Peter mentions in his book that the Chinese define the word crisis as danger and opportunity combined. Great leaders learn how to respond to a crisis by studying history. They look at their own experience and that of others and they apply that knowledge to the events that they face or are about to face. In their solution they create opportunity.

Whats is an opportunity exactly? To me its a ball up on the rim, a new business idea or concept launched, a seed planted in the field, a calf born on the farm or a positive change in your lifestyle or relationships. Its essentially hope and vision combined with experience. Awaiting your opportunies is the collision with fate. And your life story is based on how you react after the crash.

In this time of crisis I think we should all look for the opportunities that present themselves. Thats the best thing to do when fate and free will collide. Plant your seeds, nurture your crops and hope.

Talk to you next week....


David