A popular book written by Harold Kushner several years ago asked the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” With all due respect to Rabbi Kushner, bad things happen to all people – good, bad, and in-between. The answer to why bad things happen to people has to do with the free will of every human being and the expectation of many human beings that life should always be easy. That’s a nice idea, but it isn’t reality based. We would do better to direct our energy toward coping with the reality of life rather than trying to avoid it.