New Rule: The Little Boy and The Zen Master; We'll See

Every once in a while a bit philosophy will resonate so strongly for so long, that I'll add it to my list of My Rules. And so it is with the story of the Little Boy and the Zen Master. Years ago, I saw Charlie Wilson's War, and while most of the movie has left my consciousness, the final scene has stayed with me. Here it is:

The abbreviated version of the story goes like this:

On his sixteenth birthday the boy gets a horse as a present. All of the people in the village say, "Oh, how wonderful!"

The Zen master says, "We'll see."

One day, the boy is riding and gets thrown off the horse and hurts his leg. He's no longer able to walk, so all of the villagers say, "How terrible!"

The Zen master says, "We'll see."

Some time passes and the village goes to war. All of the other young men get sent off to fight, but this boy can't fight because his leg is messed up. All of the villagers say, "How wonderful!"

The Zen master says, "We'll see."

My take away of the story is this: there are no doubt definitively good and bad things that happen in life. But without time, it's not clear whether an event falls into one category or the other.

Be patient. You'll see.