You do not need to be exceptionally perceptive to see or predict the future. Sometimes it is simply a matter of knowing how to put “two and two together”, or, in other words, understanding the relationships of cause and effect that govern the world. Some are extremely simple and obvious; others, more complex.
You might then conclude that we live in a deterministic world that unfolds predictably. And the truth is that, to a large extent, we do. You could say this world is 99% determinism and 1% surprise.
And how do the two unfold? What are they? Well, determinism is like a sumo wrestler pushing you, blow after blow, towards the edge of an abyss. Eventually, you become aware of your fate because you know you are at the edge and one false step means the end. Yet you cannot conceive of another way out.
You watch your problems, now appearing as mines about to explode, draw closer alongside the Grim Reaper. Your disastrous decisions wrote your fate. There is no turning back. “We’ll have to settle for whatever comes,” your caged mind thinks.
Since we are within determinism, what follows, obviously, is that you will end up tumbling into the abyss. Yet there is always one last card in your pocket that almost no one dares to play: the card of that 1% chance.
That card spares you the time it would take to begin your descent, fall through the void, hit rock bottom, and examine the walls imprisoning you. And finally, to make the decision that will allow you to climb back up and build a new life—this time with your hand on your heart and your head held high.
That 1% is the card of miracles. It is the golden bet. It means betting on a card with nothing drawn on it because it is made of light. That card is a sudden change of mind. It is switching tracks just before a derailment. It is defusing a bomb one second before it explodes. It is the ball that grazes the crossbar on its way into the goal after an invisible hand has curved its path.
That 1% is what truly keeps you alive. That 1% is the hope of a dream yet to be fulfilled.
You have to be truly mad to stake everything on an unknown card.