>This is then part of the answer to how short bits of our lives add up to
>longer life-trajectories. It is not just that the N-1 bits do or do not
>lend themselves to level N lives, depending on whether they can synchronize
>into these longer term patterns, but also that WHICH level N life patterns
>are available are further constrained by still higher-scale N+1
>(institutional-historical-cultural) patterns. Those N+1 constraints
>(boundary conditions on self-consistent solutions at level N) do NOT
>directly control at what age or point in the school curriculum you found
>yourself too busy with other things to catch a particular career train, but
>they do constrain what career trains there are, their schedules, etc. They
>don't make your life, any more than deciding not to register for
>biochemistry this semster does. But your life is what emerges at level N
>from whether or not any possible cumulation of N-1 decisions and actions
>winds up being consistent with some N+1 pattern of the larger society.
Paul Prior
Associate Professor (English)
Associate Director, Center for Writing Studies
p-prior who-is-at uiuc.edu
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign