Once upon a time, there was a Chinese farmer whose horse ran away.
That evening, all of his neighbors came around to commiserate.
They said, "We are so sorry to hear your horse has run away.
This is most unfortunate." The farmer said, "Maybe."
The next day the horse came back bringing seven wild horses with it, and in the evening everybody came back and said, "Oh, isn't that lucky? What a great turn of events. You now have eight horses!" The farmer again said, "Maybe."
The following day his son tried to break one of the horses, and while riding it, he was thrown and broke his leg.
The neighbors then said, "Oh dear, that's too bad, " and the farmer responded, "Maybe."
The next day the conscription officers came around to conscript people into the army and they rejected his son because he had a broken leg.
Again all the neighbors came around and said, "Isn't that great!" Again, he said, "Maybe."
The natural world is a highly interconnected and intricate system. We cannot label any event as entirely good or bad, as we cannot predict all the consequences.
Something that may appear unfortunate at first may lead to unanticipated benefits later on, while something that seems positive may end up causing issues.
Due to the vast complexity of nature, our limited perspective makes it impossible to determine with certainty whether specific occurrences are positive or negative.
Tweet: The Story of the Chinese Farmer
Knowledge Letter: Issue: 278 (Subscribe)
Tags: Alan Watts (4) | complexity (78) | nature (2) | unpredictability (6)
RSS: Blog Feed
Photo Credits: Midjourney (Public Domain)