With acknowledgment to Daniel Callahan, and with apologies to all true philosophers, I have been thinking about what kind of life we lead, and how our choices influence that life. The conversation is one I have with myself (yes, just me in my head) and with the people that matter most to me — 
close friends, my wife, my kids. I have been thinking more about this lately because of two things — one is our enhanced recruiting effort at SVHC, the other is my annual fall trip in the wilderness with my closest friend. I’ll try to make the connection for you.
Of course we cannot choose everything about how life goes- life hands us challenges and surprises; tragedies and opportunities. That is when choice is so important. One who wrote it better than anyone else I’ve read is Victor Frankel in Man’s Search for Meaning. His thesis, distilled, is that we cannot chose what happens to us, but we can choose how we respond to it. He was interred in a concentration camp, but chose to be optimistic.
The only moment I can count on is this one, so I think I may as well make the most of it. Being angry, feeling victimized or worrying doesn’t fix anything and actually diminishes my appreciation of this moment. Also expressing those kinds of feelings certainly have some effects on others. Being with folks who are really angry, really anxious, or who really love to blame others for their woes can be tiresome.
So what’s the connection with recruiting and my wilderness experience? Well, as we have spent so much time reflecting on what we can offer doctors at our hospital, we have realized that most of the medical staff feels they have made a good choice about their life. They feel supported by their colleagues.. They feel satisfied that they are making a difference. 
They like the quality of life their kids have here — the education, the environment, the opportunities. We, as a medical staff, have not adequately ‘told our story.’ So we’re doing a better job now. We have a new website to help us with this. We don’t just look for great doctors; we tell them also what they will find here. We tell them what they can expect, and what they can contribute.
And the wilderness? That also is about reflection on “what kind of life?” How do I choose to spend my time? I choose to take my kids in the woods time after time, and as adults they still remember those times as the special ones, and one even goes out there himself- alone, with friends, or with me. I choose to spend four days a year in the woods with my best friend. We cherish the solitude, the peace, the opportunity to slow down. We get up with the sun and go to sleep when it goes down. I forget what day it is. A trio of curious river otters chatters at us and we laugh so hard we feel like we’re 10 years-old again.
So I am not a believer in fate at all. I think things happen, but we provide the ‘reason’. More important, we choose the response. Rise to it, interpret it, and take it someplace better. Choose what kind of life. It’s up to me.
As Bernard Shaw put it: “this is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one…the being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote it self to making you happy.”