A few days ago, I submitted my doctoral thesis. Stepping out afterwards into the sunlight, I was dazzled by the clouds and the clover and the bees, overtaken by the strange dizziness that accompanies a sudden moment of perspective. I treasure these moments for the experience of sheer contingency they generate: the sense that one’s life didn’t have to be this way. If only I could live each day like this, just as it came from the hand of God: completely new, unexpected, unanticipated, pure gift.