The headlines reveal a restless world in motion—nations and individuals striving to outpace one another, to secure advantage, to rewrite what has been, to build what might be. Yet there is a deeper current running beneath these ambitions: the recurring discovery that outcomes elude our grasp, that the consequences of our actions ripple in ways we do not anticipate, that knowing and controlling are not the same. The preacher’s ancient observation finds new resonance in every age. Perhaps wisdom lies not in the intensity of our striving, but in the humility to acknowledge how much unfolds beyond our sight, and in pausing to ask whether the races we run are the ones worth finishing.