Ebb and Flow

As of this writing, I am spending about a week or so in Pennsylvania, in an attempt to get away from the rat race that is Rockville, Maryland. It is calming at the spot that I'm at, and I've been letting my mind wander around in contemplation of... well... anything and everything. As I was staring at the creek that is at the bottom of the hill that this house rests upon, I came to a sudden realization.

People who say that life just isn't fair are nothing more than egotists.

I'm guilty of letting these words slip past my lips, just as I can say with confidence that most anybody who happens to be reading this little blurb is, as well. It's something that we grow up listening to, having it shoved in our faces and down our throats on a disturbingly regular basis. I feel now that this should probably stop.

The times that we say that life isn't fair are the times that we find ourselves at a crossroads, of sorts. These are the times where we lose a job, a friend, a pet, a loved one... whatever. These are the times in life that we probably aren't at all at our best, and we're doing what we can to get by, and even though we're making it, we're still upset by the circumstances.

Understandable, sure, but why say that life isn't fair? Just because things aren't going the exact way that you envisioned them to go, does that mean that life isn't fair? Not at all, really. I think that life is very fair. It treats all of us in the exact same fashion that it treats everybody else. It makes no exceptions for anybody when it wants to throw us some form of curveball or another. Life doesn't ease up on us just because we look at things positively, or because we're good people. Just because someone is an alcoholic, that doesn't mean that life is going out of its way to get that person.

I came to this realization as I was staring at the flow of the water of the creek, sitting on the banks. The flow was calm, slow, and steady at one part. There's a bridge that overlooks the creek, and right beneath it is a miniature waterfall. At this point, the current goes haywire, and there are white peaks to the water as it flows. There are rocks that attempt - vainly, I might add - to slow the water, and yet it just continues on its merry way, going around the rocks, or over them entirely. After the rocks, the current is speedier than it was prior to the waterfall, but it stables out and becomes calm once more.

It was only after some reflection about what I was seeing that I had the "ah ha moment" of the day. This creek, in all of its natural splendor, is a wonderful analogy of the way that life is. When things speed up in your current of life, they can get quite hectic rather quickly. This is something that some people meet head on. Others try and fight against it, and are the ones that typically end up saying that "life just isn't fair."

Listen: I propose to you that life is, indeed, fair, and that you have two options when the current starts picking up. You can either A) meet the current - and the invariable rocks that are in your way - head on and go around them, as the creek does, or B) you can fight against it and end up getting caught in the undertow and dragged along the rocks on the creek bed, only to emerge on the other side battered and bruised.

Realize, folks, that life is fair. This is something that I'm convinced any man and woman of any kind of faith or belief can agree upon. Life isn't out to get you; it's just simply out there. It's what we choose to do with it that counts.