"Who knows what's good or bad?"

While I was writing my last post ("Benjamin Franklin's 13 necessary virtues..."), I came across an online article and TEDx talk by the CNN contributor David G. Allan, who writes for "The Wisdom Project", what he calls "a thinking person's life hacking column in which we examine behavior modification, self-help, found wisdom, and applied philosophy."  The online article ("Good and bad, it's is the same: A Taoist parable to live by") caught my attention, which next led me to Allan's 2023 TEDx talk, "Who knows what's good or bad".

Allan started his TEDx talk by stating, "For 200,000 years humans have been accumulating wisdom.  It's even in our name: homo sapiens sapiens.  The word sapiens comes from the Latin sapient meaning to be wise."  Allan then goes on to say that we accumulate wisdom primarily via experience, i.e. the good and bad things that happen during our lives.  He emphasizes that we often learn from the experiences of others through storytelling.  As Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "Learn from the mistakes of others.  You can't live long enough to make them all yourself."

Allan next proceeds by telling a story about a farmer who lost his horse.  The story is more than 2,000 years old and comes from the Taoist tradition.  The story goes something like this (there are several different versions):

Good luck and bad luck create each other and it is difficult to foresee their change.

A righteous man - a farmer - lived near the border.

For no reason, his horse ran off into barbarian territory.

Everyone felt sorry for him.  His neighbor apologized and said, "I'm so sorry about your horse."

The farmer replied, "Who knows if that's good or bad?"

Several months later, the farmer's horse returned with a 12 barbarian horses.

Everyone congratulated him.  His neighbor came back to celebrate, telling the farmer, "Congratulations on your great fortune!"

Once again, the farmer replied, "Who knows if that's good or bad?"

Now his house is rich in horses and the farmer's son loved riding horses.

He fell and broke his leg.

Everyone felt sorry again for the farmer.

His neighbor said, "I'm so sorry about your son!"

To which the farmer replied, once again, "Who knows if that's good or bad?"

A little while later, the barbarians invaded the farmer's country, looking for their lost horses.

The army comes to the farmer's village to conscript all able-bodied men to go and fight in the coming battle. The son is spared because of his broken leg.

All the able-bodied men men strung up their bows and went into battle.

Nine out of ten border residents were killed,

except for the son because of his broken leg.

The farmer and the son both survived.  

The moral of the story: Bad luck brings good luck and good luck brings bad luck.  This happens without end and nobody can estimate it.

It's difficult to label good experiences versus bad ones.  It's probably a false dichotomy.  The Taoists have a way of symbolizing the farmer's "Who knows if that's good or bad?"  It's commonly known as the yin and yang:

Here, the black area represents yin, while the white area represents yang.  The dots are representative of one within the other.  In other words, there is no clear distinction between the two.  They are complementary, interconnected, and interdependent.  In fact, they give rise to each other.  It is in fact impossible to talk about one without mentioning the other.  They are two parts of a greater whole.  

The same is true of good experiences and bad experiences.  Allan says, "Good can come from bad, and bad can come from good.  Once you move past good and bad, you become less concerned about the outcome and more accepting to how things evolve naturally."  

The yin and yang is all about balance.  We should seek to achieve balance in our lives.  And one of the best ways that we can do that is to focus on what we can directly control in our own lives.  I am reminded again of the Stoic philosopher Epictetus, who said, "There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will."  He went on to also say, "Happiness and freedom begin with a clear understanding of one principle.  Some things are within your control.  And some things are not."  "Who indeed knows what's good or bad?"  Things tend to work themselves out in the end.  Balance.