Everything happens for a reason

Let’s start with a very nice “Maybe” story that I read long time back – A widowed farmer lived with his only son and one horse. One day, the horse ran away, their neighbors exclaimed “What bad luck!” and the farmer replied “Maybe“. Few days later, the horse returned, with many wild horses in tow, his neighbors exclaimed “What good luck!” and the farmer replied “Maybe“. His son excitedly rode one of the wild horses and fell down, breaking one of his legs, his neighbors told “What bad luck!” and the farmer replied “Maybe“. Few days later, the king’s army came to recruit young men for army to fight an ongoing war, they rejected the farmer’s son as he had only one leg. His neighbors, whose sons had been taken away gasped “What good luck!“, and the farmer replied “Maybe!”. The gist of this story is that although several things happen to us and around, we can’t conclude that the changed circumstance is for good or bad.

Few months back, my friend Mayur met with a minor accident, a fall, hurting his right arm, his elbow took a severe blow. The fracture seriously hampered his daily movement. What followed was a painful two months’ doctor visit and physiotherapy. While talking to him, he narrated his experience and told I could probably blog about it (and this is the main reason we are here!). Lot of people told him, “What bad luck!“, it was his right hand got injured, one that we predominantly use. Interestingly, he points out (in a “maybe” tone) that just because it was his right hand, he had extreme motivation to get it back in action as soon as possible. Had it been his left hand, he would have taken it bit relaxed, thus severely hampering the recovery. Maybe it’s just his growth or positive mindset, but again “Everything happens for a reason“.

I remember my cousin mentioning while I was driving him to the airport, he had to catch to flight to Mumbai “This exact moment that we are here, it’s pre-destined. I was supposed to be here, and you driving me to airport”. It had been a while since we had caught up, and destiny chose today. My daughter has prepared a nice quote herself that seems quite deep “Things happen, and they are meant to be!“. Our apartment in Shanghai, while we were living there for several years was right next to a central park, with a well laid out running track. Although I managed to do some cycling around, I never tried my hands (or legs rather?) at running. It was much later, after we moved back to Bangalore, after attending one family run at our residential community, did I finally yield to running. Maybe I was destined to enjoy cycling in Shanghai and relish running in Bangalore, everything happens for a reason.

I take company cab from office to home (this is a luxury in Bangalore, for sure!) and typically leave at 5pm, normally taking a sedan with 3 employees on board. One day, my colleague made us wait and boarded 15 minutes late. I cursed him as I was the last one to get dropped after the other two, and any delay in start meant more traffic along the way. Mid-way in the journey, amidst the crazy traffic, I sighted a friend from our residential community driving his car. I called him and checked if I could join him. Both my other colleagues and the driver were very happy for me, we stopped enroute and I switched car and reached home quite early that day. Now, had my colleague come on time at 5pm, I would definitely have not met my friend along the way, and would have reached much later. Again, everything happens for a reason, I concurred.

In his incredible book “Lifespan“, in the chapter “Viva Primordium“, scientist author David.A.Sinclair jots down an interesting section “To Everything there is a reason“. He writes “There was no unified explanation for why cancer happens, so doctors removed tumors as best they could and spent a lot of time telling patients to get their affairs in order. Cancer was “just the way it goes”, because that’s what we say when we can’t explain something. Then, in the 1970’s, genes that cause cancer when mutated were discovered by the molecular biologists Peter Vogt and Peter Duesberg.” Cancer had a reason after all, and research around cancer changed dramatically with this discovery to focus on tumor-inducing proteins encoded by these genes.

You might have heard or read stories about accidents, bus, car, train, flight, even accidents at home, how someone narrowly missed being part of that fateful journey. Maybe traffic caused delay or maybe they got ill or maybe they had some personal emergencies to attend to. Although their situation at the time seemed bad, maybe it happened for a reason and was good thing after all. We could go on and on citing situations that happened for a reason, but I stop here and let you contemplate. For anything that happens to us, or around us, that seems bad in the time being, do we curse or whine, or do we accept that it happened for a reason and move on?