Reading "How We Got to Now" by Stephen Johnson, I read about glass. Johnson traced the developments from the printing press to more reading to more people discovering they needed glasses to more and better glass to the invention of telescopes and microscopes greater understanding of bacteria and life we can't see to better longevity.
Reading "Life is Your Best Medicine" by T. Low Dog, MD, she traced chains of causation in her own life:
"Over the years, I came to learn that most of the things I once considered failures were really blessings in disguise. If I hadn't dropped out of high school, I never would have met Thomas or felt the magic of the sweat lodge. But if I'd felt at home in the plains, I wouldn't have traveled to Richmond and met Frank, opened my leather shop, and found Juba. She taught me about being a woman, about birth, and mid-wifed me through a critical period of my life. If my leather shop had been successful, I never would have moved down to Grace Street and found the Kim School of Tae Kwon Do. I never would have learned martial arts or studied tai chi with Master Kang. And if I had never met Daniel, my beautiful son wouldn't be in the world and in my life. If the divorce hadn't happened, I'd never have gone on the vision quest, which taught me to let go of the past and embrace my faith again. The strength I found in the desert those three days allowed me to pursue my business, school, and clinical practice, which provided enough money for Mekoce and me to live comfortably. If the migrant worker hadn't come to my clinic and returned to tell me his little girl had died, I never would have thought of becoming a physician. All these links in the chain of my life gave me the tenacity to work my way through college and medical school."
— Life Is Your Best Medicine: A Woman's Guide to Health, Healing, and Wholeness at Every Age by Tieraona Low Dog Md
I recognize similar chains in my life. If I hadn't chosen Latin in 8th grade, I wouldn't have gone to the high school I did. If my homeroom teacher hadn't told me to go to college, I would have missed college and my wife. I might not have become a 5th grade teacher. If I had enjoyed my time student teaching, I wouldn't have chosen educational research and statistics as a grad school major. Then, I wouldn't have qualified for a grad school scholarship and a doctorate. Then, I wouldn't have been hired in a small Wisconsin town as a professor.
