Our Lives Are Not Our Own?

Is it true that our lives are not our own?

That’s a tough question.

It’s especially tough that all this quickly jumps off into philosophy and religion.

How can it not?

If our lives ARE indeed ours – I have trouble taking issue with hedonism and megalomania.

For through determinism, morals and ethics seem to fall away as meaningless abstractions.

But if our lives ARE NOT our own – I have trouble avoiding theism.

I, for one, choose meaning and purpose and love over emptiness.

What if all this is only the beginning flicker?

It’s called hope.

Something pummels us, something barely sheathed. Power broods and lights. We’re played on like a pipe; our breath is not our own.  

-Annie Dillard, Pilgrim At Tinker Creek