The System is Calling the Shots

Random: lacking aim or method; purposeless; haphazard.

When I'm doing The Work I have to laugh at the unpredictability of life. I have absolutely no idea what's going on most of the time and that's a lot of fun when I'm not fighting The System. It's like getting up in the morning and finding out that there was an unexpected snowfall -- I can bitch about having to shovel the driveway or I can go out and make a snow girl, with anatomically correct breasts and a demure look on her face. This doesn't change the essential fact that there's snow on the ground. I can marvel at the snow or I can rail at the sky that disgorged it. Makes no difference to the snow. The snow is part of The System. There are rules that I can't make go away.

Herr Luber has drifted, with some gentle nudges and bumps, into a little swirling backwater of life. One of those spots we all get caught in from time to time. We can see the big, exciting River of Life as we float around, maybe getting dunked by a small waterfall now and again, but mostly just swirling, bumping into the walls. It's not that unpleasant but it's not that interesting, either. Dunk, swirl, look at the River longingly, repeat.

"The Random Meter is pegged at the top," he said. What a great image. Fully Random. That is a great metaphor for total lack of control. It's the loss of control that's frustrating. It's managing the expectations that's hard.