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seems like an instance of translating a description into a prescription.
    Daniel . In other words, because Leavers lived their lives in the hands of the gods, so should we.
    Elaine . That's right.
    Daniel . This is a valid reply up to a certain point, but it also suggests that no description should be taken as a prescription. Are you familiar with Jean Liedloff's Continuum Concept ?
    Elaine . No.
    Daniel . Jean Liedloff, an American writer, spent the early 1970s living with the Yekuana and Sanema tribes of South America, finding them to be the happiest people she'd ever known. This led her to pay particular attention to the way they reared their children. What she saw, among other things, was that their children enjoyed constant physical contact with their mothers from birth, slept in their parents' bed until leaving of their own volition, usually after about two years. She saw that they were breast-fed instantly whenever they were hungry and during infancy were in constant contact with their mothers as they went about their business. There's a great deal more to it than this, but this gives you the general idea. As a result — or at least so it seemed to Jean — children matured feeling completely secure, happy, and unneurotic. This was a description that tens of thousands — or it may be hundreds of thousands by now — have found to be a very successful prescription for child rearing. I've been around children raised this way, and I can tell you that the difference between them and children raised the usual way is striking. So you can't automatically dismiss the utility of turning a description into a prescription.
    Elaine . Okay. But living in the hands of the gods...
    Daniel . Keep in mind that this is just an expression. If you were to ask the members of an aboriginal tribe if they were living in the hands of the gods, they wouldn't know what you were talking about it, and if you explained it to them, they'd probably say, "Well, we never thought about it that way, but I guess you could say so."
    Elaine . I don't think I quite understand.
    Daniel . "Living in the hands of the gods" is just an expression. You could say "casting your fate to the winds" or even "trying your luck." An example will help. Every year tens of thousands of young people dream of becoming successful actors, but only a few of them actually go off to New York or Hollywood to try their luck. While this handful take acting lessons and go to auditions, they take any kind of work they can get. I say they're trying their luck, but it would be equally valid to say that they're living in the hands of the gods. Or you could say that what happens to them is up to the fates. Obviously they don't all make it; only a very few make it. But if these few hadn't put themselves in the hands of the gods — hadn't left home to scuffle for work and face a lot of hardship and rejection — they wouldn't have made it at all. No one who stays home and plays it safe becomes a success on the stage or screen.
    Elaine . Yes, I can see that.
    Daniel . Most people in our culture strive for a maximum of control over their destiny — avoid at all costs anything that looks like living in the hands of the gods. This often assures a certain success, but it almost never brings a lightning strike of good fortune. They get along, according to plan, they advance toward collecting their retirement benefits, but that's it. Lightning strikes only those who are willing to risk living in the hands of the gods.
    Elaine . And — if I may ask — how does this translate into your own life?
    Daniel . You may definitely ask. For the first twenty years of my life I followed the conventional trajectory, in control as much as possible at every point. I had a career in publishing and over a twenty- year period moved steadily upward. In my last position I just had to hold on and keep my head down, and a vice presidency would have been mine almost certainly — and, ultimately, quite possibly the