Could Be Worse

It could be worse, and it really could. Look at your life. Worse things could have hap­pened. The ques­tion of the uni­verse is not why there is evil but why there is there good? There seems to be a limit to how bad things can get. Mil­lions sur­vived world wars. Bil­lions still find enough to eat and some­how go on and find another day of life. Bad things hap­pen, but there always has been a cush­ion that has kept the whole story going. Some­thing must be going on beyond what we comprehend.

I know this sounds like a way of ratio­nal­iz­ing what is, but you have to admit, no mat­ter where you are in life, it could be worse. Even in dif­fi­cult coun­tries filled with poverty and des­o­la­tion, it could be worse. Injus­tice is every­where, but there is enough jus­tice to keep us in social motion. There is an edge to how bad things can get. There is a wall — a bound­ary that some­how keeps it all from get­ting totally out of hand. Chaos is present but it does not reign.

Each day that awake, I won­der how it is that I am still here. Yes, I have a list of genetic issues as long as your arm. Still, I am here — and you are too. The econ­omy is not the deter­min­ing issue (it really never is). Life goes for­ward. It has us for a while. When we are gone, it still has for­ward motion. What is this thing we call “life?”

We look around at peo­ple that have grave mis­for­tune, but it could be even worse for them. That may sound like a strange con­so­la­tion, but it is true. Some­thing keeps a floor beneath us. Life is more a test than an aban­doned exis­tence. Right when we give up, there is a break.

It could be worse, but it isn’t. Hang on for the ride!