Everything Happens for a Reason? A Rant!

“Everything happens for a reason”, they say, and “their” opinion has become pretty mainstream. This supposedly positive thinking is an undeniable part of how we human beings are; we’ve been making myths and stories and religions out of reality for as long as we have been human.

I nonetheless want to scream “oh no it doesn’t!” Of course, we are free to attach whatever meanings we like to our experiences, and changing the storyline can be enormously helpful. We are free to be present and aware in our lives in order to create the best outcomes that we possibly can. But most of the “everything happens for a reason” stories I have read are about people dropping out of college, or having accidents from which they recovered, or losing all their money, and how they changed direction in their lives for something more meaningful to them.

All well and good, but these stories speak to a small proportion of people on the planet at this moment. What about the child whose entire family are slaughtered in front of her by soldiers for no apparent reason? The child soldiers themselves high on drugs and told to kill? The sex slaves being raped and abused in Britain today who came here to be waitresses? Is all this violence inflicted on so many really necessary for their personal growth?

That’s my rant over. There may well be a reason from some very large perspective, there may well be a God out there for whom it all makes perfect sense. I doubt it, but it’s possible. It’s great when people make use of bad times to make themselves stronger and more aware, and we can undoubtedly influence our lives crucially by our attitude. But let’s not pretend that we are all God.

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