Not Mere Fate

It’s bad philosophy to believe that good directly comes from bad. When people see bad things, they seem to assume that good will come out of it, because that is how things work. This belief stems from seeing things wrongly. It’s the belief that just because good sometimes comes triumphing over bad that bad must naturally birth good afterward.

It’s a common ideal that “Oh, something good will happen out of this.” That is not altogether true. Bad things do happen. However, sometimes people seem to think that when a bad thing happened, and they arise to the occasion, the good things that they did were caused by the bad situation. Thus, “If that had not happened...”

That however, is rather fanciful. For example, lets say a woman had her whole business torn down by a natural disaster. That was a bad thing. However, lets say her life was crumbling down before that. So she felt that since everything was torn away, she could start afresh. 

From that day on, she rebuilds a life, she is more successful and happy. The woman chose the good. She made good, not bad. It was a decision she made, it was not made just because that’s how life is. Yes, she changed her ways because of that disaster, but ultimately, if she didn’t choose the good, or decide to make the situation better, she would have been worse off. It was not that bad happened so that good could happen. No, rather that she had the opportunity to pick good or bad. Nothing good comes out of bad. Good comes externally from bad. 

If people don’t make a situation good, it will just be either alright or just bad. While it is harmless seeing the silver lining in the cloud, you can always find it without that cloud. Bad and good are not intransigently linked together. Just because sometimes good comes after bad does not mean that they need one or the other.

Make no mistake. Bad is bad and good is good. However, what we choose to do with those things, will define the situation. Not fate, not some strange rule of good follows bad, but the choices that we make or others. Bad things do happen, there is no reason really behind bad things. Yes, they might be mistakes we have made, but ultimately, the reason is not that bad will happen so good can arise.