What to do when the Bad Thing happens
A guide, of sorts, for when life turns difficult
We all of us, sometime in life, will have The Bad Thing happen.
We’ve all got one Big Ol’ Bad Thing waiting for us all at the very end, and no matter how strong your faith in the afterlife or rebirth, dying is pretty, pretty Bad. But before we even get there, we’re all going to have a heartbreak, a setback, a layoff, a diagnosis, an accident or other event that will qualify as a Bad Thing.
So as hard as it is to accept, you’ve just simply got to come to terms with The Bad Thing. One will enter your life, eventually, no matter how canny you are, how savvy your choices, lucky your genes, etc. The Bad Thing is a given; it’s table stakes for being alive. The question, the real question, is what you do when The Bad Thing happens.
A funny thing about when The Bad Thing happens — and I’m drawing here from both personal experience and keen powers of human observation — is that you really don’t know how you’re going to react. You may think you do. As you are reading these words, a part of your brain is saying “Of course I do! I’m a very [strong/calm/anxious/insightful/unstable] person, and I will react accordingly!” To which I say: Bullshit! Sorry, but it’s true. Until you are in The Bad Thing, you really don’t know which part of…
