“The Ball no question makes of Ayes and Noes, / But Right or Left as strikes the Player goes”Omar Khayyam · Rubaiate · 1120 · catrenul 64
You don't choose life's direction; you're struck and roll wherever events push you.
The poet sees life as a game played by someone else. The ball has no will of its own and does not judge whether its path is good or bad; it simply takes the strike and rolls wherever it is sent. The mechanism is plain: circumstances — birth, war, illness, chance meetings — strike us first, and only afterwards do we call the result luck or guilt. A farmer who moves to the city because of drought did not choose a new life; the drought struck him.
Why it matters Useful when you blame yourself too harshly for the direction events you never controlled have thrown you.