May 28, 2025–In high school I read the novel Bridge of San Luis Rey, and I revisit it at each stage of life.
The story starts with the collapse of a rope bridge over a river in Peru, resulting in the perishing of assorted travelers who were crossing it.
Through the voice of the lone survivor, Brother Juniper, author Thornton Wilder traces back each person’s life, showing how they came to be at this point in space and time when the bridge collapsed. Sort of like the backwards Seinfeld episode.
Why is this something I think about?
It’s the old fate vs choice debate
Because it is interesting to think back over your life and consider all the seemingly minor decisions you make that led you to arrive at this precise point.
Every reader can come up with examples in their own life, when choosing Door A over Door B led to radically different outcomes. I’ll use one episode in my life as an example. Here I am, in 2025, in the beautiful Texas Hill Country. What had to happen to get this naïve boy off the farm and call the Hill Country home?
Here are the highlights: One morning in 1974, I groggily wandered into a music store in Greeley, Colorado (how I got there from Iowa is another tale of random events). I asked the manager if he knew of any bands looking for a drummer.
“Oh,” he said sadly. “Too bad you didn’t come by yesterday. A band just picked up a guy.”
Fatalistically, I scribbled my name and address with “drummer available” on a piece of paper and pinned it to the bulletin board.
The next morning there was a knock on my door. I opened it on two young men who appraised me carefully. Finally one spoke without preamble:
“Are you Phil?
“Yes,” I replied.
“Do you own a set of drums?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have a car?”
“Yes.”
“Does it run?”
“Yes.”
There was a pause.
“Do you have any beer?”
My positive reply sealed the deal and set me off on two years of playing with brothers Bill and Bob Smallwood in lounges, clubs, and military bases across the country.
The randomness continued, when a few years later I got a call from brother Bill asking if I would be interested in coming to a little town called Bankersmith, Texas, for a few weeks to fill in on some gigs. Little did I know that random phone call would lead me to discover Fredericksburg, play at Luckenbach, meet my wife, have four children and end up contributing this column to the reading world.
Looking back, it seems so random. If I had gone to the music store a day earlier or a day later, my current life would look completely different.
Like I said at the beginning, I still think about this often. I don’t have any deep conclusions or insight into what it means. There were infinite possibilities before and after these examples, where if I had made a different decision or walked through a different door, I wouldn’t be sitting here typing this. Whether it makes you believe we are controlled by an infinite all-knowing guiding hand, or that we are programmed characters in a software simulation, or that life is a random roll of the dice, it keeps you wondering about your role in this existence.
Some philosophers believe that whenever we reach one of those decision points, whatever follows will be the most interesting outcome. This theory has merit. Look to the fields of your favorite sports team, American politics, or where you decide to go on Saturday night. Isn’t the outcome always interesting?
I just don’t know the reason. But I like knowing it will always be interesting.