perspective

Alan Watts, a popular American spiritualist who studied & taught eastern philosophy tells a story from time to time, as I’ve heard it repeated a time or two in the recordings of his speaking engagements, about a farmer.

A farmer’s horse got out of the stable and ran off.
His neighbors said “that’s bad.”
He answered “maybe.”
The horse returned a day later with 6 wild horses.
His neighbors said “that’s good.”
He answered “maybe.”
The farmer’s son was training one of the wild horses, and got kicked, and broke his leg.
His neighbors said “that’s bad.”
He answered “maybe.”
Later, a government man came around conscripting young men to go fight in a war, and the farmer’s son was left off the list because of his injury.
His neighbors said “that’s good.”
He answered “maybe.”

The story goes on like this, typically to illustrate the meaning of the yin & yeng, that no good can come without bad, and no object can be observed without the space around it to give it context.

This occurs to me from time to time when I’m in the thick of it, as I frequently am. When I’m busy, I want time to myself, and when I’ve got too much time to myself I start to look for things to occupy me.

The truth is, I need both. I need those crests and troughs because that’s what life is made of, and if you want to get really granular, that’s what everything is made of – our vision is refractions of light that are distinguishable because of the dark spaces between them. Sound waves are the same. Even we are an assemblance of molecules with space between them…

… but to zoom out a bit, most of us wouldn’t know what a good day was if we didn’t have a bad day to compare it to. Sunny, warm days are treasured because we know what rainy, cold days are, as we know summer from winter.

All day, every day, we are comparing what we have with what we had… you’d think gaining another perspective wouldn’t be so hard.