Life is not fair, you said.
You finally stopped talking, for a moment, and you pondered the futility of your situation. You lovingly gazed into my eyes, searching for an answer, but instead you found munificent silence.
Not the, I told you so kind of silence. Nor the, I don’t know what to say, so I will just say nothing at all, kind of silence. In me, you found a compassionate, challenging, kind of silence. The kind that understands the question and sees a way out, but also knows the cost and the unavoidable price for being a human being.
Life is not fair, you said.
I agreed.
Life isn’t fair.
Being black is different than being white. Being Indigenous, at least in North America, is something completely different, all together.
Practicing and sharing your Muslim faith in the United States of America, or expressing your Christian values in Iran, let’s say, will present its own set of challenges, to say the least.
Life is not fair.
Whomever did you believe that told you otherwise?
Nothing will make the reality any easier when your child is born with cerebral palsy, or dies too prematurely. When you can’t have children at all, or find yourself in hell fighting post partem depression.
Life won’t be fair when your husband of thirty-five years, had an affair for thirteen of those seemingly precious years.
Nothing can really help you deal with the destructive reality of your brother’s gambling addiction. Or that your sister is a drunk. Or that you have an inoperable tumour.
Every stage of life, no matter who you are, or where you are, presents its own set of scrapes and struggles. I almost said problems, but they are not really problems. They are challenges. Life is not something to conquer and overcome. Life is something to experience and live. The struggle is the fuel. It’s not about doing, it has always been about being.
There is no point gathering wood for your fire, if you have no intention of doing something with the light.
I hope you can see that there is so many things you can do with that glorious light!
Life is not fair, you said.
And you are right.
I answered in my silence.
It is not fair, but it is still worth living.
Viktor Frankl, a beautiful man who survived the hell of Auschwitz, gave us a transformative insight about our last human freedom.
When it is all going wrong. When the pangs of hell are at your door; the attitude you take towards your unavoidable suffering or the things you cannot change, is your last and only hope. It is more powerful than you would care to believe.
It’s not easy.
You cannot measure a person’s pain or the depths of their sacrifice. You cannot count the cost or fully repay the debt you owe to those that helped you along the way.
Life is not fair, but I believe that is whole point of it all.
Right to the end. Despite of everything. You get to choose how you feel, think, or what you want to do. Your attitude towards the unavoidable reality of your life is yours. It is magnificently placed in your hands. It doesn’t change the truth or intensity of your situation, but it does build your character, and it makes God smile.
No one will be shocked if you give up. No one will blame you if you quit. If the burden of your agony buckles you at the knees.
There is no right or wrong answer. Your life and the decisions that you make are simply beyond all measurement. No one can judgement. Not even you. In fact, there is never a right or wrong time to do anything. There is no magical place. The right advice. Pivotal insight. Maps. Guides. Badges of accomplishments or monuments of greatness.
There is no thing. Nothing. Just you and the universe that is set before you.
You are never out of chances or possibilities.
You control your last human freedom.
Life is not fair, you said.
I agreed and answered in the undeniable silence of your attitude towards the things you cannot change.
