This Much I Know to Be True

Billy: My wife has thrown me out. I've lost my job, all within a week. Suicidal thoughts in abundance. How does one handle having seemingly no control over one's life?

Nick: Dear Billy, the majority of letters that come into the The Red Hand Files, in all their various forms, are essentially asking the same question. Your question. How do I handle seemingly having no control over my life? This question is often accompanied by feelings of betrayal, and rage, and resentfulness, of hoplessness. The truth is, we all live our lives dangerously in a state of jeopardy, at the edge of calamity. You have discovered that the veil that separates your ordered life from disarray is wafer thin. This is the ordinary truth of existence from which none of us are exempt. In time, we all find out we are not in control. We never were. We never will be. But we are not without power. We always have the freedom to choose how we will respond to whatever it is that life offers us. You can collapse and be dragged under. You can harden around your misfortune and become embittered. Or you can move toward the opportunity that is offered to you. That of change and renewal. The next best action is always presented to you, Billy. Look for it and move toward it. This is the great act of insubordination toward the vagaries of life afforded to us all. Love, Nick.