the notion that all things in life happen for a reason has never sat well with me.
i acknowledge it as a way of trying to make sense out of bad things that occur... as a means for seeking the meaning or the positive behind the destructive or the pointless.
i just don't buy it.
way too convenient. way too predetermined. way too emasculating.
with fate at the helm, what choices do we actually have in life? if there is some inherant meaning baked into everything, then we are merely pawns playing out some scripted uberplay.
in this sense, everything happening for a reason takes all the variableness out of life... and all of the challenge and accomplishment along with it.
a different scenario here is that things do not happen for a reason; rather, we make a reason out of things that happen.
a subtle nuance, but a significant one.
the meaning isn't there until we make it so.
if someone gets fired from his job, and he mopes around depressed and stays in bed all day, it's doubtfull too much good is going to come of it.
but if he takes this dismissal as the impetus to change careers and pursue something he really loves then he has truly advanced his cause.
the meaning is not in the event; it's in the reaction to the event.
and so, carrying this approach over to our pal, jerry tuttle: did jerry's death happen for a reason?
hard to imagine.
but can we make a reason out of this tragedy and use the leadership, the courage, the compassion that jerry shared during his life as motivation for better contributing to this world?
yes, this i believe.
