There is a lot of lightweight spiritual nonsense floating around that tries to convince people that they can manipulate reality in just the right way so as to avoid any unpleasant situation or circumstances. All you have to do is think the right thoughts, say the right mantra, smile from morning until night, eat the right foods and/or avoid the wrong ones, hang the right cheesy decorations in the right corners of every room, wish upon a star, or any of literally hundreds of other sure-fire, can’t miss solutions for spiritual happiness. The problem is that, except for the people trying to sell you this nonsense, you can’t find anyone who will tell you that it has worked for them.

The truth is that life is full of unpleasant situations, and the reason seems to be that life works that way. We can arbitrarily assign all sorts of meaning to those unpleasant situations if we believe doing so makes it easier to cope with unpleasantness. We can imagine certain events occur to teach us a lesson, or provide enlightenment, or as punishment for our sins, or to help us get a bigger dick or bigger tits. Whatever makes you happy is fine with me but please, oh please don’t send anyone money who tells you that their particular perspective will help you definitively control the outcome of anything – because it won’t. What does help you influence, but not control the outcome of life’s challenges are decisions based on sound reasoning and a healthy spirituality that reminds us we aren’t in charge. Anything short of that is just, well…