Life is Just A Pile of Good Things and Bad Things

I think I tend to over complicate life. So many things happen from so many different scenarios and so many people get upset or happy over so many things. I try to think logically and rationalize life or I get emotional and try to defy life. I feel, at times, overwhelmed with all that comes with life and it feels almost impossible to deal with. One moment things are going well, then the bottom falls out and life sucks. One day life is moving forward and growth happens, and then a brick wall pops up and you're at a stand still. One day all of your relationships and work life is amazing and you couldn’t ask for anything better, then you step on a crack and it feels like your whole world could crumble at any minute. Like, how do I deal with all of that?? How do I deal with the knowledge that this will continue to happen and will always happen because that is life?? That sounds so freaking bleak. It’s ironic that I started this thought talking about how we over complicate life because life is indeed complicated. So when life starts to stop, halt, and fall apart I start to think there is some higher meaning, some complex answer to all these issues that will one day open my eyes and fix these problems. One day I will find the answer that was developed by God himself and I’ll decipher what it means. From there, I’ll be able to figure out how to make sure I keep moving forward, how my life will always be amazing, how disappointment and hurt can be deleted by just being wise enough to avoid them. Luckily, I think I have found it. It came by the way of a writer by the name of Richard Curtis. I didn’t decipher it, but Matt Smith did. Oh, and it doesn't allow me to keep moving forward, allow me to make sure my life stays amazing, or give me the wisdom to delete disappointment and hurt by avoiding them. The answer is quite simple really. It’s not even an answer really. Just…a thought. “The way I see it, every life is a pile of good things and bad things. The good things don't always soften the bad things, but vice versa, the bad things don't always spoil the good things or make them unimportant.”. Once again, The Doctor comes through for me.

Occam’s Razor is a problem solving principle that, simply put, says the simplest answer is usually the correct answer. Adding some context to Occam’s Razor, and a little bit more accuracy, it states that when you have two competing hypotheses the one with the least amount of assumptions should be the preferred choice. Now, what does Occam’s Razor have to do with life being a pile of good and bad things?? Well, in my mind, it goes back to earlier when I said that I tend to overcomplicate life. Whenever I made a mistake, whenever I disappoint people, whenever I fail at what I was trying to do, my anxiety would race in my head about how that is all of who I am. My mistakes, my disappointments, my failures. So then, my mind would race to figure out how to prove all of those failures, mistakes, and disappointments wrong. What do I need to do so that I don’t fail or disappoint again?? The simple answer, nothing. Nothing can be done because, as humans, we are bound to fail and disappoint. So what’s the point, right?? Wrong. Just as we are bound to fail and disappoint because we are human, we are also bound to succeed and thrive because we are human. I, as a human being, will fly to the highest of highs and fall to the lowest of lows. I will accomplish tasks I never even thought possible in my wildest dreams and fail at the simplest of life's requests. I will make people proud of what I have done and disappoint them for what I didn’t do. There is no escaping that. That is life. As someone who tries to be an optimist, it seems a very dreary look to have on life. Even now my anxiety wants to “fix” that and find a way to only soar and never fall, but that cannot happen. Both are needed in life, yin and yang, dark and light, otherwise how do we know when we’re flying?? (Move on from that for now, different thought for a different day). So what do I do?? What is the answer?? Well, go back to Occam’s Razor. What’s the answer with the least amount of assumptions?? What is the simplest answer??

As complicated and complex as life can get, sometimes the simplest outlook is what keeps me going. If I think too much about my failures and disappointments it makes me wonder how I’ll ever accomplish something again or how I ever did in the first place. My failures don’t tarnish my accomplishments though. My proud moments are not blotted out by my disappointments. My moments of love are not erased by my moments of hate. However, focusing on the good doesn’t get rid of the bad just as focusing on the bad doesn’t get rid of the good. Both need to be remembered and acknowledged. The bad pile teaches you, grows you, humbles you, hurts you, and strengthens you. The good pile shows you that all of that is worth it in the end. The good things don’t soften the bad things, but the bad things don’t erase the good things. Like The Doctor says, life is a pile of good things and a pile of bad things. The only thing I would add to the end of that quote is, what pile do I focus on. Do I focus on the bad things and forget the good that has happened, or do I focus on the good and learn from the bad. Focus on the good pile, and learn from the bad. Andiamo.