If Life were a game of 10 ball, I think the table would be surrounded by people with cues taking shots at random - sort of like that game 'Hungry Hungry Hippos', but instead of capturing and pulling the balls it would be a lot of cue balls being shot onto the table with the hope of sinking a ball. When you're younger, I think, you just keep shooting randomly and hoping for a result.

As you grow older and, hopefully, more experienced, you start planning your shots and waiting for the balls to line up in certain ways before taking a shot. This requires patience and the skill and experience that should have been acquired from the seemingly random and even spastic attempts before. You can wait for a long time for shots to line up - a very long time. Maybe you pull a chair, read a few magazines and books, watch some televisions and movies and just sit there and wait. You may even lose faith in the balls ever lining up au jus.

Then, when you least expect it, you see a shot. It could be a straight shot. It could be a combo, where you might have to transfer energy from a few balls to others to sink only one ball - or maybe you get a split and can drop two or more balls at the same time. Or maybe it is both.

Maybe you sit there and wait, pondering - and the table changes, the shot leaves.

Or maybe you line up the shot quickly, and you take it and hope that skill and experience reward patience.