Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Fairness

Life is not fair; get used to it. – Bill Gates

Perhaps it is truth that life is not fair. I have been thinking about that a lot lately because my family has faced a lot of “unfairness”.

But is it?

What is fair?

Definitions of fair on the Web:

•free from favoritism or self-interest or bias or deception; conforming with established standards or rules; "a fair referee"; "fair deal"; "on a fair footing"; "a fair fight"; "by fair means or foul"


•not excessive or extreme; "a fairish income"; "reasonable prices"

•bonny: very pleasing to the eye; "my bonny lass"; "there's a bonny bay beyond"; "a comely face"; "young fair maidens"

•(of a baseball) hit between the foul lines; "he hit a fair ball over the third base bag"

•average: lacking exceptional quality or ability; "a novel of average merit"; "only a fair performance of the sonata"; "in fair health"; "the caliber of the students has gone from mediocre to above average"; "the performance was middling at best"

•fair(a): attractively feminine; "the fair sex"

•carnival: a traveling show; having sideshows and rides and games of skill etc.

•clean: (of a manuscript) having few alterations or corrections; "fair copy"; "a clean manuscript"

•gathering of producers to promote business; "world fair"; "trade fair"; "book fair"

•honest: gained or earned without cheating or stealing; "an honest wage"; "an fair penny"

•fairly: in conformity with the rules or laws and without fraud or cheating; "they played fairly"

•a competitive exhibition of farm products; "she won a blue ribbon for her baking at the county fair"

•free of clouds or rain; "today will be fair and warm"

•join so that the external surfaces blend smoothly

•fairly: without favoring one party, in a fair evenhanded manner; "deal fairly with one another"
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

So let’s look at some of these from my perspective:

• free from favoritism or self-interest or bias or deception; conforming with established standards or rules; "a fair referee"; "fair deal"; "on a fair footing"; "a fair fight"; "by fair means or foul"

No favoritism here. Cancer has stricken several in my family including my youngest daughter. Self-interest; of whom? No rule book for life and no referees.


• not excessive or extreme; "a fairish income"; "reasonable prices"

Is it excessive that I have lost 5 siblings to cancer and that it has now attacked my daughter?

• fairly: in conformity with the rules or laws and without fraud or cheating; "they played fairly"

How does one cheat when there are no rules?

• fairly: without favoring one party, in a fair evenhanded manner; "deal fairly with one another"

So I suppose if this one applies the 2 siblings and 3 children I have may be “dealt with” fairly.

However, lest I sound morbid, which is not my intention, I go in another direction.

My beautiful daughter is a special person. She is facing a difficult time in her young life and she is facing it with humor and grace. So I am not bitter about this. She has a strong faith and she feels that her faith will sustain her. I admire her as she faces each day with courage and strength. She has God on her side (she believes). But….

I don’t understand the strength she gets from prayer but I will not deny that she has it. She credits her god with all the good things in her life but never blames him for the pain and suffering. I don’t get it but I don’t have to.
She is an amazing person and I only see her strength and her courage: maybe there is something supernatural about that!!

5 comments:

Rick b said...

Is this Daughter the LDS daughter?

Interested said...

Yep, that's the one. I hope that isn't the reason she is suffering this calamity but I sure would like to blame it on someone.

Rick b said...

She's not suffering because she is a mormon. If you choose to blame some one Blame yourself and me and all mankind. According to the Bible it is from Our sin that caused this problem.

But This kind of stuff happens to everyone, even us Believers. My Wife has MS and has had it for about ten years.

She has other health issues also, Then many Believers I know suffer pain and health issues, or are simply killed in other countries due to their faith.

Whats even sadder than dying of cancer or dying from anything is after you die, You find out that God is real and your suffering will really begin then for rejecting the truth.

Or People who believe in False Gods, Like Muslims or JW's or even the LDS, When they die they find out they were wrong and never knew God, and are told depart from me into every lasting fire for I never knew you. Now thats sad. Rick B

Rick b said...

Here is another thought. People teach that as a result of flaws or errors or even mistakes, that we evolved to where we are. But now all of a sudden these same things that caused us to evolve and be great are now killing us. Seems rather strange that we are no longer evolving and getting better, we are now going down hill and dying off. That to me is simply evidence that the whole theroy of eveloution is both a theroy, and wrong. Rick b

Shelli said...

Hello Interested. As Rick stated, I have MS, but also other chronic illnesses for which there are no cures. I am in pain pretty much every day, but I have Jesus Christ in my heart and my life. He does sustain me. And when I begin to complain about what He allows me to go through, He reminds me of how much He went through to save me. Then, I have nothing to complain about. He allows things in our lives to bring us to Him. It probably won't make sense to you, but I wouldn't trade my pain and suffering because I am so close to Jesus Christ because of it. It is something that you cannot fully understand until you go through it yourself...