Everything Happens For the Best — Oh, Yeah?

Twice today I was told, “Everything happens for the best.” Everything? Is it best when a child dies? When an earthquake hits? When one loses their home and ends ups on the street? In books, everything does happen for the best. That is the point of writing — to make sense of senseless happenings. There has to be a lesson to be gleaned from the story events — perhaps character growth, definitely a satisfying resolution. If the story events happened without reason, the way things happen in life, readers would throw the book across the room and never pick up another one.

Oddly enough, our brains do that same work for us. When a tragedy has passed and we have come to terms with it, when we have found a way to live despite the pain life dishes out, we look back and think, “Everything did happen for the best.” But was it really for the best or was it our brains doing what they could to make sense of it all? Would we have ended up in the same place even if the tragedy hadn’t occurred? It’s impossible to tell, but I do know not everything happens for the best. We make the best of what happens. It’s called life.

Source : http://secondwindpub.wordpress.com   Everything Happens For the Best — Oh, Yeah?