You never know

on the mysteries of the unknown 

There is a story about a farmer in China. One day his son fell off a horse and broke his leg. Everyone in the village felt sorry for him and his son but two weeks later a war broke out somewhere and the government’s representatives came to visit the village and took all young men with them for their compulsory service to fight in the war. Most of them never came back. Everyone in the village was saying that the farmer was actually very lucky as his son didn’t have to go to war and by breaking his leg, he might have saved his life. The next year, the farmer’s horse broke his leg and had to be put down and everyone was saying how unlucky the farmer was but the farmer just said: ‘I might be unlucky but I might be also lucky, you never know…’. Nothing is good or bad intrinsically. It all depends on the point of view.