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| He has quite a sense of humor. |
Last month, a young, relatively new animal advocate thanked me for Losing My Religions: “It was like a personalized lesson. Sharing your mistakes saved me from having to make them all myself.”
Well, I hope so. But who knows?
The “Good news, bad news, who knows?” fable (below) could very well be the story of my life. Most of the things I was most sure about in life turned out to be 180 degrees wrong.
Just a few examples, in chronological order:
1991: When Diane dumped me, I was sure it was The Worst Thing Ever. Turned out to be the best thing possible, given that a year later, I hit the cosmic lottery and became the luckiest collection of atoms that ever existed.
2000: (This one is really convoluted.) G.W. Bush being made president was surely the worst possible outcome. But without that, there was no war (wait for it), no economic collapse (wait for it), no Obama and no Democratic super-majority, and thus no Affordable Care Act. Without Obamacare, I would probably have died in 2014.
(I know that doesn’t offset the many, many Iraqis who died because of W. And everything else horrible that happened in those eight years (“Our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is finally over;” annotations.) I’m just talking about myself.)
2014: This seemed like it was surely The Worst Thing Ever: The coup that ousted me and Anne from the organization we co-founded 20+ years before. Nope – it was the best possible thing that could have happened to my professional life, as my day-to-day efforts stopped having a net-negative impact in the world. (If you have read Losing, you know the details.)
2020: Nothing could have been more important than Biden winning, right? But in retrospect, it would have been better if Joe had lost. The previous incarnation of Tangerine Palpatine’s administration had at least a few moderating elements, the courts' rulings were somewhat followed, and the Dems controlled the Senate. Now, even worse [!] people run the government. There is no rule of law, no checks or balance at all.
I should have listened:
Once upon a time, a farmer had a valuable horse run away.
“Bad News!” said the people.
“Good news, bad news, who knows?” replied the farmer.
Later, the horse returned to the farm with many wild horses accompanying it.
“Good News!” said the people.
“Good news, bad news, who knows?” replied the farmer.
Some time after that, the farmer’s son fell and broke his leg while trying to train one of the wild horses.
“Bad News!” said the people.
“Good news, bad news, who knows?” replied the farmer.
Soon after, the army came through town conscripting all able-bodied young men, and the farmer’s son was passed over.
“Good News!” said the people.
“Good news, bad news, who knows?” replied the farmer.
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