Unpredictability

Life, as it has so often been bandied, is unpredictable.

But how does one come to terms with injustice that is entangled and further complicates this unpredictability? Some news just awakens one to the reality that is life - it shatters the very world view we've been brought up as children, destroys the myth that is purported in Enid Blyton books and fairy tales of old. The world isn't a happily ever after; the good rarely win and in fact they die young.

I was immobilised and in shock when I heard that one of my students is suffering from lymphoma. He has to withdraw from school and undergo chemotherapy for the remaining part of the year.

How does one comprehend this brute reality - that a 17 year old child who is healthy, athletic, intelligent, wise, mature and sensible beyond his years suffer from cancer? One inevitably asks "why"...

It's like how I had no answer for my dear secondary school friend who'd lost his mother at the age of 16 and had to watch her wither away with each passing day. "Where is your God?" he'd ask. "What did she do to deserve this?" he'd bemoan. In my naivety, I remember telling him God's ways are not our ways.

But how can that answer suffice in the face of such cruel and painful reality?

I don't provide such doctrinal solutions any longer because I know there is no grand meta-theory, no 'the answer'. Without such certainties, how does one try to comprehend and wrestle with the reality that poses even more fearful uncertainty?

I have no answer. I ask why too. I ask why him? He is a good kid. And in the fourteen days we spent together in Sri Lanka, I discovered a part of myself in him; we have much in common. Perhaps it is that - I ask myself how I would react if it were me. And I can't quite find an answer.

I can only imagine the emotional turmoil he must be facing. And all I could say was "stay strong ... you will come out of this stronger. And I'll be here if you need me."

Cliches were all I could offer ...