Why in the World?

“Don’t try to make life a mathematics problem with yourself in the center and everything coming out equal. When you’re good, bad things can still happen. And if you’re bad, you can still be lucky.” —Barbara Kingsolver 

I saw this quote on my book corner page this morning and it made me start thinking about how I sometimes view life.  I am a thinker.  I could think about everything that happens in a day, week, month, year for hours and hours on end.  Usually it does not end up in a good situation.  It makes me worry about everything and I try to find some sort of solution to make it all work out.  This quote made me realize that it's not all my fault that I do this. I am a math major so it makes sense that my brain likes to analyze every detail and tries to come up with a way to make everything work out the way I hope for.  But the truth is life is not a math problem.  We do not have a lot of control over what happens and why it happens.  Don't get me wrong, math is very important and useful in everyone's life everyday.  And thinking about certain things like they are a math problem is a good thing.  That's what I am trying to teach my students is that it is important to learn how to think critically and solve problems.  However, life itself, is another story.  We have some control as to how our life will turn out.  We can make educated decisions, choose our careers, life paths, beliefs, etc.  But we cannot control what happens on a day to day basis.  And sometimes we can't fix the things that do happen.  We need to just accept that they happen and that eventually things will fall into place.  It doesn't matter if you are the nicest person in the world, bad things can still happen and if you're a "bad" person you can be lucky.  It's hard for us sometimes to accept what occurs throughout our lives and to not compare them to the lives of others.  But we should all learn to take a deep breath, relax and have faith that things will work out eventually.