Thursday, June 19, 2014

It's Not Fair

"It's not fair," is a phrase often used when bad things happen to good people. Although the law of karma has certain obvious qualities that define its movement with certainty (i.e. if you hit a brick wall going 100 mph, you'll get hurt or worse), karma also works in mysterious, inexplicable ways as well.

When my husband was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer, one of my daughter's mantras, intoned to the rhythm of great sobs, was,  "It's just not fair." It is true that a good man with gifts to share and a family to love should not be taken off the planet, when there are a scarcity of reasonable, intelligent human beings. And yet, if one tries to equate justice with goodness, Lady Liberty will end up standing on her head with her scales askew.

Were I to make a list of the places on this planet where innocent people are murdered, driven from their homes, imprisoned, turned into slaves, or other horrors, it would be a long one. Life is frequently not fair, but the arc of justice prevails in the long run. It's trajectory through time and space may be too long and wide for one person to perceive during his or her lifetime, but the pendulum eventually swings over the center point, at least for a measure of time.

The longer the mind can remain at rest on this center point, the greater the balance between the poles of fair and unfair. From a place of equanimity, our heart ceases to yearn for "fairness" and instead stands firm in a place of gratitude.

1 comment:

  1. Thank you for sharing Much LoVe to you and your family

    ReplyDelete

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