Words To Ponder

I have been reading Paul Starobin's After America. There is a lot to write about the book but I will save that for another time. In the Introduction chapter, he writes :

Both human beings and civilizations can be less dangerous with a sensible realization of their limits. In the affairs of humankind, there is no such thing as a pure actor as a driver of events : Even the biggest of actors is acted upon. Subject and object dissolve into an unfolding tale whose conclusion is elusive, a matter of probabilities rather than certainties.

As far as I am concerned, I got more than my time's worth from this book just for reading those lines. I found myself going over the words over and over again as I mulled over what it meant at the individual level, how this idea has played out in my life or those of others that I know closely, events that touched us (or not). Even if Starobin did not have another coherent thought in the remaining 300 plus pages of the book (which is most certainly not the case), it would not matter.