In her book ‘Embracing Uncertainty’, Susan Jeffers tells a story of a Chinese farmer (or maybe he wasn’t Chinese) who discovered that his horse had wandered off into the forest. His neighbours said to him “how unlucky to have lost your horse” the farmer said “maybe it is, maybe it isn’t”.
Two days later his horse came back with another horse it befriended in the wild. His neighbours said to him “how lucky to have two horses” the farmer said “maybe it is, maybe it isn’t”.
The next day, while the farmer’s son tried to tame the new horse, he fell and broke his leg. His neighbours said to him “how unlucky that your son broke his leg” the farmer said “maybe it is, maybe it isn’t”.
The following day soldiers came to the farm to recruit his son, because of his broken leg, he could not be recruited. His neighbours said to him “how lucky that your son could not be recruited” and the farmer said “maybe it is, maybe it isn’t” and the story goes on.
To me, this story depicts well the Gestalt Therapy idea that the consequence of an event gives meaning to that event. In everyday application, I believe that often more important than what we did is what we’re going to do next.
