As people we end up with hair, looks, skin, much of who we are is pre-determined. If we don't like the color of our hair we can cut it off, or dye it. If we don't like the shape of our head there's not much that can be done.
Same with firing pots. We think we exert control over the outcome of our pots, but even that's a vanity. With wood firing you have an idea of how things will turn out, but only an idea. Meet someone, have babies, do you know how your children will turn out?
I just saw a very interesting film, "Intacto", with Max von Sydow, about a man who trades in luck. His associate Federico, amasses luck by stealing it, but has his luck taken away by old Max, who runs a very profitable insurance company and gambling casino. To get even, Federico finds the luckiest man alive, the lone survivor of an airplane crash. He coaches him though a series of games of chance, each more deadly than the last. It leads back to Max and a game of Russian roulette, a game that Max has never lost.
Sounds like an appointment with fire.
So with pots. Luck. You watch the river of luck. Good luck, bad luck. Of course it's all the same stuff to the fire, because the fire never stops. Get too close, you burn. The galaxy's burning, the sun is burning, the earth too will burn. Fire can't be put out. Fire can't be avoided.
So I marvel sometimes on 'good luck'. Is it luck? Or is it just a bit of truth?
