Gratitude Workarounds
Because the wheel’s still spinning
By now we probably all know the terrific Zen tale that teaches us never to assume we know whether events will turn out to be good for us or bad for us.
The story goes like this: A man’s horse runs away — bad news! The horse returns, bringing 12 fresh wild horses with it — good news! The man’s son breaks his leg trying to ride one of the wild horses — bad news! But now he is spared fighting in the war — good news! Because the man is wise, he refrains throughout from declaring whether each event that comes is good or bad news.
Unlike this wise man, most of us want to characterize whatever happens to us as “bad” news or “good” news. But typical lives are made of disjointed episodes whose narratives turn on a dime. George R. R. Martin is not the first author to deliver a plot twist or kill off a main character in the first season. (Adam and Eve didn’t get out of their pilot before the author revised the entire storyboard. I don’t even think they got raises, and for sure they lost their guarantees.)
We’ve all noticed these reversals.
You get in a fender-bender on the way to the airport, and you miss your plane, but that plane disappears into the Bermuda Triangle.
