My mother passed away in August, four days short of her 70th birthday. When we lose something we love, it’s easy to feel bitter, resentful, and cheated. It’s easy to feel that life is cruel, systematically robbing us of everything good until we’re left with nothing. While these feelings are understandable—forgivable even—they miss far more than they capture about the human condition.
Today, when I look around, I see a lot of bitterness in the world. I see anger at injustice and at poverty. I see resentment at promises unfulfilled. I see blame being directed at people belonging to different generations, the “wrong” political parties, and different ethnicities. Everyone seems so unhappy, convinced that the world is in decline, ruined by those who came before to cheat us out of our birthright through the malice of prejudice and greed.
