Life is not a meritocracy. I get that. But I think that’s a flaw in the design. Those who sow compassion should not reap calamity. Some people- often the best people, the most deserving – are serially rocked by disaster. I would love to get to the bottom of this, but then I think, the bottom of what, exactly? The bottom of bum luck, or a malevolent universe? There’s no making sense of it.
A dear friend of mine, one of the very best people and for years my wise yoga teacher, has ovarian cancer. It’s devastating and, it seems to me, bewilderingly unfair that a person dedicated to health and wellness for others be given this diagnosis. In fact, it would seem to prove the malevolent universe theory.
She had to shutter her yoga studio, which is a huge emotional blow and a financial crisis, since after the death of her husband from pancreatic cancer a few years ago, she has been the sole support for herself and her adult son with disabilities.
The GoFundMe page has been started, and the loving community of students and friends she has amassed are there for her. She is optimistic, her sunniness ridiculously undimmed now as it was throughout the heartbreaks and hardships and downright tragedies she’s emerged from, because that’s her essential nature.
What she has going now is a reverse tidal wave of the love and care she has been generating so relentlessly for so long. In other words, she’s getting exactly what she deserves.
Maybe life is a meritocracy after all.