Transthought

Good News or Bad?

How does one receive bad news? I just learned that one of my favorite baseball players, Greg Maddux, has been acquired by the Los Angeles Dodgers. I suppose in the long run it makes no difference in my life, but it means I will not see him in a Cub uniform any more, and I have to resurrect those feeelings I had when he went to the Braves from the Cubs years ago. So it depresses me for reasons not fully rational to me.

How do I receive bad news? With a shrug, in this case, but I have had to deal with bad news in other contexts, to be sure. My general philosophy tells me tht bad news is as equally a part of life as good news. There is a way to allow it to depress one, and a way to shrug it off and get on with life however is necessary. I have always chosen to get on with life, to put it behind me however I can, to do what I must to deal with the challenge, and start all over again, as the old Fred Astaire song has it.

Besides, who can define bad? There is a story in the Bible that reminds us that what seemed to be meant for evil or bad, was intended for good in the larger picture (The story of Joseph). How can we say that something is ultimately bad? It may turn out to be an act that will benefit us in the end. So I do not go to pieces when I get bad news; I tend to remain rather stoic and accept it as part of the day's happenings, examine it for its ramifications, and see what has to be done to deal with it.

Of course tragedy is something else. It is no tragedy that Maddux was traded, nor was it, for that matter, a tragedy when each of my aged parents died. It would be a tragedy if some act of violence took the lives of my wife or child or grandchild, and stoicism would not enter into the scene. Grief when it is genuine cannot be stoic. Therefore we must distinguish between what is merely bad and what is tragic. The old dramatists divide plays into comedy and tragedy, but a third category might be in order -- something that is neither tragic nor comic but simply is, which I believe defines most of life. It is similar to the argument I offer to those who try to define right and wrong. Different is neither, it just is, and we must learn to accept different as a legitimate category by which to make judgments, if we must judge at all. So with news, some of it is neither good nor bad; in fact, I submit most news is neutral in the largest sense, and we must learn to be content with that.

Wayne's Words for July 31, 2006

posted by Wayne Olson @ 4:27 PM