Until It Ain’t

We stumbled upon a show on Amazon Prime. ‘Survivor’s Remorse’ had a 3-season run and we didn’t know anything about it until we watched the first episode.

It’s a funny, heartwarming show. I was having a grand time watching it until there was a tragic incident.

One of the very funny characters says:

“Life. Everything is great until it ain’t.”

About twenty years ago I learned the most important lesson of my life:

“No matter how much I struggle to control things, I don’t have any say in the major life happenings.”

Zero control.

And the more people you know, and let into your life, the more tragedy you’ll be exposed to. 

That’s just how it works, and man, some news is way too difficult to digest.

Lives are defined by struggle and pain.

People are defined by how they handle it. I have moments when I catch myself just shaking my head.

It’s the only accurate response.

I often think of Steinbeck and “The Grapes of Wrath.”

Specifically, the moment when Tom Joad has to leave and his father asks his mother:

“What are we going to do now?”

She simply says, “We’re going to go on.”

And the entire Joad family is left to wonder why they have had to suffer, but they push on.

Believing that they will find their way through the pain by trusting in their faith, and relying on their love for one another.

I recall reading those sentences for the first time. I gasped.

“We’re going to go on.”

And at the end of the day, once we have bargained our way through the pain of the struggle...

...we rely on what we believe, and hold dear.

Because that’s all there is.

Life. Everything is great...

...until it ain’t.