Musings about pool:

One of the lessons the game of pool taught me is how to become a good fatalist/determinist. Of course one can get into serious academic debate about that label, but (since I'm not 100% in tune with my Phil 80 teachings) I'm going to use that term simply to describe the attitude on things outside of your personal control, things cannot be changed by will alone, things that are simply matters of fate.

I am not a big subscriber of the American dream, of manifest destiny. Is the human will an all-powerful force? Is your lot enitrely the result of your past actions and choices? Obviously not, at least not on the pool table. Terms shooters refer to such as rolls, dead rails, fast felt, dirty/chipped balls, tigh pockets, dead stroke, The Pool God all carry an aura of mysticism, of luck and chaos beyond one's control. I will venture to state that all pool players, more or less, carry an superstitious attitude. There's a lot of gray area, co-governed by fate and will, between what you want to do on a table and what actually happens.

However, the game of pool is also a craft that can be practiced and perfected (to the best of one's abilities, not literal perfection). And the direct result of increased proficiency in pool is the decreasing of that very gray area. A superior pool player naturally has a smaller discrepancy between execution and results than an inferior player. Better players can account for gray elements other than shotmaking such as speed and english and table lay, and to some extant even to the psychology of their opponents. As your skill progress, the gray area narrows....but never completely disappears. And that's why I love the game of pool. It is an ongoing battle of will and fate, but with a healthy dose of respect for the inevitability of fate.