Hello and Happy Tuesday!
I was looking forward to the play A Clockwork Orange for a long time. I purchased a ticket weeks ago and waited patiently. Tonight was the night. My mom took care of Petit Joel. I changed, put on some makeup and was out the door. Fast. I arrived nice and early, ordered a light apéritif while reading the PlayBill. Then I looked around and waited. I love to go to the theater to see a play – especially a ballet. Close to showtime, an actor stepped out on the little balcony to announce that the play was cancelled due to power failure, a computer crash and the sound system was down.
Initially, I was angry and disappointed. Then I thought that everything might happens for a reason. While I drove home again, difficult situations that happened in my life popped in my mind. Usually, whenever something tough happens, or something gets canceled that I have been looking forward to, I reassured myself by saying that everything does happen for a reason; over and over, to simply make it easier for myself to deal with whatever happened. Problems, arguments, death, disasters, tsunamis, earthquakes and whatnot. But while in the car today, I thought that things don’t necessarily need a reason. Things just happen by chance or by accident I believe. I also hear people say that something is “God’s will” and this is the reason why X, Y or Z happen. But in a way, there is this total lack of evidence that this is true. How do we even know if this is God’s will or what God’s will is? I cannot believe that it is God’s will if an earthquake kills thousands of people. Or a baby dies of cancer or something else horrifying. Natural disasters have their reasons – reasons that can be proven and have strong evidence why they happen.
Does everything happen by chance rather than reason? Does someone get a promotion because they have been at the right place at the right time but they have no clue about the upcoming tasks and responsibilities? And somebody else applied who has all the knowledge but was not invited to the interview. Are certain people just luckier than others? Others have bad luck and fail and it is therefore not their fault? Are certain things so unforeseeable that we call them accidents? Or is everything just inherently unpredictable? A short story comes to my mind:
“There was a farmer whose only horse ran away. On that evening the neighbors gathered to sympathize with him, for surely this was such bad luck. Now your farm will suffer and you will not be able to plow, the neighbors warned the farmer. Such a terrible thing to have happened to you, they said. The farmer said, “maybe yes, maybe no.” The next day the horse returned and brought him six wild horses, and the neighbors came to congratulate him and celebrate his good fortune. Now you are richer than before,they said. Surely now this has turned out to be such a very good thing, for you, after all. The farmer said, “maybe yes, maybe no.” The following day, the son saddled and rode one of the wild horses. He was thrown off the horse and broke his leg. Now the son could not work on the farm. Again the neighbors came to offer their sympathy for such an inconvenient truth. They noted that there was more work than the farmer could handle and surely now he would become poor. Such bad luck, indeed. The farmer said, “maybe yes, maybe no.” The day after that, conscription officers came to the village to take all the young men for the army, but because of his broken leg, the farmer’s son was disallowed. When the neighbors arrived again, they said how very fortunate the farmer was, as things had worked out after all. Knowing well that most young men never return from the war alive, this was the best fortune yet. And the old farmer said, “maybe yes, maybe no.”
I believe that everything just happens randomly without a reason but we can influence certain things a bit. I cannot say if something does happen for either good or bad. It just happens without over-analyzing or thinking too much about it. The play was cancelled tonight. I am a little sad about it because I looked forward to it for a long time. The world won’t come to an end. Rather than spending my energy getting upset, I invest it to figure out how I can still see the play at a different day. And I deal with that and stay calm.
How do you cope with difficult situations? Do you believe everything happens for a reason? Food for thought.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xH4zvlhXTnA
1 thought on “Everything Happens.”