Newton’s law teaches us that to every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction. Karma is credited with cause and effect, which my dad has summed up as, “Do good things and good things happen.” Bono once wrote a song in which he sang, “It’s always darkest before the dawn.”
We wrestle with this duality constantly. Its like we’re trying to figure out whether our attitudes, beliefs, ideas, experiences, knowledge, and wisdom are worth everything we go through while we’re going through them. Maybe things seem crappy, so we want them to be better. Maybe they seem wonderful and we’re suspicious they’ll change anytime. We pass judgment about them all the time, naming them good or bad, up or down, positive or negative.
There’s a story about a farmer who had a horse that ran away one day. When his neighbor heard, he came to visit and said, “That sucks,” to which the farmer replied, “Maybe.” The next morning the horse came back and brought three wild horses with it. The neighbor said, “That’s awesome!” “Maybe,” said the farmer. The next day the farmer’s son tried to ride one of the wild horses and was thrown. His leg was broken, and the neighbor again came to offer his sympathy. “Maybe,” said the farmer. The day after that the military came to draft the young man into the army. Seeing that his leg was broken, they passed up the farmer’s son. The neighbor congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out. “Maybe,” said the farmer.
Maybe at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter whether we’re positive or negative. Maybe what matters is that we live life to its wholest and fullest without trying to control and manipulate it to become what we want it to be.
Adam F.C. Fletcher 