Time and Chance for Everyone

Growing up, I listened to the song “Turn, Turn, Turn” hundreds of times. I didn’t grow up in a religious household so I didn’t know when I first heard it, the words were from one of the books in the Bible. I did look it up when I found out. I did not read the rest of Ecclesiastes at the time, but I have since read it.

“Time and Chance for Everyone” is a modern take on Ecclesiastes 9: 1-18. As an Atheist and Secular Humanist, I find the majority of the Bible to be appalling, morbid, vile, and unbearably misogynistic.

Even my favorite book, which is Ecclesiastes, has contradictions, absurdities, injustice, and misogyny. It is also the book that tells us to eat, drink, and be merry. It tells us ashes to ashes; nothing lasts beyond the grave; while there is life, there is hope but after you’re gone from this earth, there is nothing. Compared to any of the other books of the Bible, Ecclesiastes has more good than bad in it.

Verse
As I walk beneath the sun
I see no race nor battle won
By the swift or by the strong
Night comes fast but days are long

Chorus
Here on this small planet we spin
Sometimes the race isn’t ours to win
The dice are cast, the wheel is spun
But time and chance for everyone

Verse
The living are joined to each other
As long as there’s life there is hope
Love hard and treasure each breath
Nothing will survive our death

Chorus
Here on this small planet we spin
Sometimes the race isn’t ours to win
The dice are cast, the wheel is spun
But time and chance for everyone

Bridge
Whatever in life you choose to do
Do it now ‘cause the days are few  
No work, no thought beyond the grave
Death comes to both the meek and brave

Outro
So dance beneath the fleeting light 
Love hard, speak truth, and do what’s right  
The race goes not to all who run
But time and chance for everyone