What we are given is more determinative of the outcome of our life than any influence we could have. What we have been given to work with never changes, the pile only grows. Outcomes are reached by the acceptance and rejection of all that is given. This claim does not mean we are powerless to change the reality of our life, but that when we feel powerless it is because of a failure of the imagination to see and take advantage of all the raw materials at our disposal.