Alva Review-Courier -

It becomes obvious that Lou Costello will never figure out who the players are in the classic vaudeville skit, “Who’s on First?” Is it a lack of communication on Bud Abbott’s part or the inability of Lou to be in control?

In a 1975 study by Ellen Langer titled “The Illusion of Control” she examines the level of influence we exert over life’s events. “We overestimate our degree of control in most situations. Reality nearly always shatters our illusion.”

“Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief, doctor, lawyer, Indian chief” as the chant goes, is evidence that we are pulled in many directions and our eventual outcome is the result of good health, good decisions and good fortune.

Good fortune is critical: luck of the draw, roll of the dice, written in the stars. We cannot control genetic traits but we can control lifestyle, which should lead to a favorable outcome – but even people who were “never sick a day in their life” die.

We live by our appointment book, only to realize as the Apostle James writes in Chapter 4, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”

As Gilda Radner said, “If it isn’t one thing, it’s another. It just goes to show you it’s always something.” – Saturday Night Live, 1978