Life is like a Box of Legos

Forest Gump's mother told him, "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get." I would have to disagree with Mrs. Gump, however, at least partially. I prefer to think of life as more like a pile of Lego, or Legos or whatever the plural of that word would be.

I'm referring to the original version of the colorful, plastic interlocking building blocks toy, where there is no predetermined pattern and you decide what the end result will look like.

In other words, I don't believe that life is random, nor is it pre-planned. While there are plenty of things that happen which are out of our control, it is our reactions to those events that generate the particular outcome.

We haven't been given the metaphorical Lego blocks in advance, however. I think we accumulate them as we go, earning one for this and two for that. How we choose to assemble them into the shape of our lives is totally up to us.

We are responsible for our actions and, subsequently, the conclusion. Sadly, that is all but ignored by popular media and the liberal left both of which prefer to blame others for the outcome of bad behavior or unhealthy choices.

You rarely hear a liberal blame the individual who decided to start smoking for the lung cancer he developed. They prefer to admonish tobacco companies for making the cigarettes in the first place.

If you don't want to be addicted to nicotine or would like to strongly reduce your chances of getting lung cancer, don't smoke. It's not that hard to understand.

On the Christian right, however, any blame for bad decisions in life are laid at the feet of the devil or a satanically-influenced human being. Heaven forbid (pun intended) someone should try just doing the right thing for its own sake.

And when they don't? Isn't it at least possible people can just be really stupid all by themselves without any kind of supernatural intervention at all? Well, I guess they can think what they want if it helps them to sleep at night.

I don't think my view of life is a popular one these days. I believe a lot of people today would like to think of life as if it were one of the more modern Lego sets, where you have to build the pattern they give you on the box. If the picture on the container shows that the blocks make an airplane, you only have what is needed make that toy, with no creativity and no personality.

But take a look around and you'll see that everyone has a personality and every life is different. Nothing is pre-planned and no road is certain.

I've known people who had planned their lives away to the point that they knew what school they would attend, what career they were going into, how many children they would have, even the color of a future spouse's hair. These are also the same people who literally fell apart when any piece of the puzzle didn't fit the picture in their head.

Life is not static '" it flows like a river, but with an infinite number of offshoots and tributaries. Throughout life we are not just faced with one fork in the road, but dozens, all leading in different directions. To remain healthy, physically and mentally, we need to be ok with the idea that it's not all mapped out and take responsibility for our choices of direction.

We need to allow ourselves to adjust and go with the flow now and again. We need to use all of the Legos we are given in order to make the best possible decisions we can while keeping in mind that sometimes things just go wrong and we have to live with the results '" good or bad.

So Mrs. Gump was partly right. You never know what you're going to get in life, but you are the one making the choice of which piece of chocolate you take from the box. Choose wisely.

Gery L. Deer is an independent columnist and business writer. Details at www.gerydeer.com.