Fate: A Throw of the Dice

I've spent the morning involved in a most unusual task. A Captain and I are selecting soldiers who will be deployed to Iraq, a rather eerie task to say the least. I feel like one of the Fates, the three sisters (daughters of Zeus) who selected, measured, spun, and cut the thread(s) of life. Though there are only two of us, the "submit orders" button suffices for the third sister, Atropos (who ominously did the cutting).

It's a weird feeling to watch how, with a few keystrokes, the lives of men and women are uprooted and changed in every imaginable way. It's a different side of things, a more detatched, logistical aspect, where lives and faces are reduced to social security numbers who fill in spots where needed. As in all of life, there's an element of chance, and it's an interesting experience to sit and watch the God's throwing the dice.