Movie A Fortunate Man

[Liora Putcha]

Wachterand several older Americans who were recently vaccinated told The Washington Post they consider themselves fortunate to have gotten the shots and realize navigating the uncertainties of a post-vaccine life is a good problem to have.

I included the above words in my study plan while a student in the Alma College MFA program as an idea to gain experience and move myself forward in the world of writing. The idea to build and lead a workshop felt both attainable and far stretched. I knew I had the skills to lead since I co-founded a writing group and facilitated its communication and meetings for eight years at my local library. But did I know enough about craft to instruct?

As I read page after page, the workshop developed itself naturally. I wrote a plan for the six-week generative writing workshop with a focus on the five senses for writers of all genres and levels. I suggested it start in September to allow writers to pay close attention to the temperatures chilling waxed skin of gourds and squash, the leaves turning to blood orange, golden yellow, and burgundy, the spices infused in cider donuts, pumpkin everything, homemade chicken pot pie and minestrone soup, the fallen dried leaves crunching under boots hiking a Midwestern forest as sand cranes fly south, and the relaxed smoke drifting from a backyard fire pit.

They came back each week! And each session flew by with no time to spare. Together, we learned. We were challenged. We created art. Some writers were inspired to start a new writing project. Some writers felt renewed. Some writers appeared revitalized when withheld stories were written down. At the end, each of us left with something valuable for every living writer: the courage to act and keep writing. Because of all this, I am fortunate.

Reading Paul MacCormack's recent blog post about the concept of intention got me thinking... as good blog posts do. In this case, it prompted me to think of the popular concepts of luck and good fortune, and how each may or may not be related to intention.

I come from a long line of wordsmiths (writers, editors, a photojournalist, newspaper people, even a dictionary editor) who instilled in me a love of language and its various nuances. My maternal grandmother, an author of children's first readers back in the early 1900s, told me early on that the "best thing you can ever do for yourself is to learn the King's English". Hence my interest in words, and accompanying irritation at (among other things) the popular use of apostrophes to pluralize something (yes, I've read Eats, Shoots & Leaves). But I digress...

If one looks up the dictionary definitions of luck and fortune, one might get the sense that they have the same meaning. According to Webster's, luck is "a purposeless, unpredictable and uncontrollable force that shapes events favorably or unfavorably for an individual, group or cause".

In modern usage the concepts of luck and fortune have diverged a bit. Luck is more closely identified with chance or other random factors beyond one's control, where fortune is often used to denote the result of intention, as Paul described in his blog post.

I often hear people in this industry exclaim how lucky they are to be able to work in it. I agree that it's a great industry, but would also counter and say that, no, they aren't lucky... they are fortunate. Chances are they intentionally chose an agronomy track in college and their career followed, each step a result of planning, intention and hard work.

Luck means winning the lottery... missing an airport connection where the plane ultimately crashed... being born into a favorable situation... or randomly choosing the correct answer on a multiple choice question when you really had no clue (ring a bell, anyone?).

People often tell me I am lucky to be able to live and earn a good living in a nice place like Vermont. Well, not really. I am able to live in Vermont because 20+ years ago I intentionally started a business that allowed me to intentionally work from home (wherever that is) and after the kids flew the coop would allow me to intentionally move wherever I chose to be. So, I feel very fortunate to live here, but luck doesn't have a lot to do with it. Intention has everything to do with it.

This trip was cooked up by my dad who has wanted to summit Kilimanjaro and go on a safari for as long as he can remember. He painstakingly planned this entire trip so it would be a trip of a lifetime for everyone. Every detail was thought out. However, life threw him a curve ball when he found out he needed back surgery. With the trip already planned and our climbers and safari-goers committed, he planned the surgery for February, 2013 so he would have ample time to recover before setting out for the climb.

We were ecstatic to be meeting up with family and friends! Setting out for the trek was exciting and nerve-wracking. Not knowing what to expect was scary, but there were 9 other family members and friends to keep me going.

We hiked for about 6 hours straight up in the darkness with nothing to guide us but our headlamps and the bright moon and millions of stars. Our guides encouraged us to keep moving, so not to get too cold.

The beautiful silence as the sun rose around us allowed us to experience one of the few moments in life when you realize you are a part of something much larger than yourself. It was this point that I knew that we would all make it to the top and reach a goal most of us had set out to accomplish over two years ago. To my dad, this was a goal that he had waited decades to accomplish.

As we stood on the rim of a volcanic crater that is hundreds of thousands of years old, the view was surreal. We were above the clouds, looking down on all of Africa, it seemed. But still, we had to dig deeper. Another push of an hour awaited us to reach the highest point on the rim, Uhuru peak.

We owe a huge thank you to our wonderful guides and crew. Without these amazing individuals, the experience would not have been the same. They shared knowledge and expertise and their example of what it really means to be tough is what took us to the top. I cannot stress enough how wonderful our guides were- Renautus, Jackson, Charles and of course, William. Each one of us created a special bond with these great guys and we are forever indebted to them for their patience, kindness and encouragement.

Now that it has been more than 6 months since we returned, I can also say that it was hands-down the most rewarding and challenging experience that I have ever had. I will forever cherish the memories that I made with this group over a week. I am extremely grateful to my co-trekkers that encouraged me, supported me and kept me laughing throughout the entire journey. Words cannot explain how fortunate I feel to have had such a special bonding experience with the other group members and to have seen the amazing scenery and flora that has made Kilimanjaro so beautiful and enticing for tens of thousands of hikers!

Since graduating from mines with my PhD, I have been fortunate to complete my post-doc in Singapore, where I worked with Nanyang Technological University to form a startup company printing perovskite solar cells.

I am fortunate to have recently returned home from Singapore after two years of post-doc and startup work and have accepted a position at a chemical company designing new resins. I look forward to growing with the company and becoming a chief scientist, becoming an expert in the field that the industry can depend on for new material and chemical innovations.

Don't forget to work hard and focus on the tasks at hand. Colorado is a beautiful state that has a lot to offer but don't let it distract you from what you have come here to do. The mountains will always be there!

I managed to keep myself busy adventuring all over the state. I enjoy rock climbing, mountain biking, hiking, skiing, rafting, camping, tubing (down clear creek), touring breweries, fishing and hunting.

While living in Golden throughout my four-year PhD, I was fortunate to climb 48 of the 58 14,000 foot mountains. Since graduating I have returned to complete four more and have ambitions to complete all of the fourteeners.

Space constraints limit an exhaustive review of the teachings of those who have taught the doctrine of the fortunate fall, but it is clear that in addition to the doctrine of the fortunate fall being an integral part of Latter-day Saint theology, the teaching can also be clearly identified in both ancient and modern writings of those not of the Latter-day Saint faith. In addition to the sampling of theological writings we have briefly reviewed, the idea of the fortunate fall is found in such diverse places as the literary writings of John Milton (Paradise Lost), [17] the teachings of mathematician and philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, [18] and the music of the band The Felix Culpa. [19]

The intent of this chapter is to discuss such terms as a means of helping Latter-day Saints and those of other faiths to better understand similarities and differences between Latter-day Saint theology and these doctrines.

Latter-day Saints believe that the consequences of the Fall of Adam and Eve affect all mankind, all living things, and even the very earth on which we dwell. Such consequences can be fully addressed only through the infinite Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The theological argument over free will began with the debate between Augustine and Pelagius and then continued in classic dialogues between such pairs as Martin Luther and Desiderius Erasmus, John Calvin and Jacob Arminius, and George Whitefield and John Wesley. [58] This same debate continues today between theologians, philosophers, and pastors such as Alvin Plantinga, John Piper, Clark Pinnock, John MacArthur, Gregory Boyd, R. C. Sproul, and Roger Olson.

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