To expand on your example, Helen Keller’s parents had a lot more going for them than their resolve. They were white. They were educated/literate. They had money and social connections. They were healthy enough to travel, and had the time and means to do so. Certainly their resolve was a huge part of the reason they succeeded in getting Helen what she needed. But I wonder how Helen’s life would have been different if her parents were a poor, rural, uneducated black family of the same time period? How much “resolve” would those parents have had to exercise to get Alexander Graham Bell’s help in finding a suitable teacher for THEIR child?

Resolve is huge, don’t get me wrong. But in an unjust society, it’s often not enough—even for people who care deeply and work relentlessly.

Chris: Your point is well taken, but there’s really no way to prove it either way. I don’t at all disagree that if Helen Keller’s parents were poor, rural, and uneducated blacks in the same time period the degree of resolve they would have had to muster to accomplish the same goal would have had to have been much greater—but why wouldn’t it still have been possible? You can always point to people who have it worse in some way who haven’t succeeded as evidence that it’s not all about resolve, but you can also point to others who have it better who haven’t succeeded either.

Alex

Maybe I’ll start here: “Are all things so invisibly yet intrinsically interconnected that such communication is really possible?” and hope that I’ve understood it right and in the right context.

One simple answer, YES! I strongly believe our will-power, our resolve, our determination, call it what you will, do control a lot of things in our life. I believe the control comes from God most of the time. That is to say that i believe He waits for us to take the first couple of steps and then He is ever Happy to Help.

I don’t know what it is about the Human Spirit but once the spark is lit, the entire Universe comes together to sort things out, like it did for Helen Keller’s parents. It worked in the 1800s and it sure does work today too. I know this for sure from experiences in my own life. Why, just last year, when I and my husband were in the midst of a deep financial crisis with layoffs and the recession on, we resolved to fight it without floundering in despair. And that resolve has seen us through some of the most formidable circumstances, which I feel surprised at now that we actually made it.

D.G: Oh, your comment brings back memories. Best of luck on Step 1. Every year of medical school becomes more fun than the one before it. Truly.

Alex