How to Ride a Roller Coaster (When You Can't Get Off)

A long, long time ago, I ran into a situation the likes of which I had never experienced. I cried. I pleaded (to the empty air). I complained - at length - about everything I didn't like, everyone who had a hand in it, and railed against the injustice of it all. And then, it hit me. I was on a roller coaster a thousand feet in the air, wind screaming past me, getting ready to hit that drop we all secretly thought might just end in death when we were children.

And there was absolutely nothing I could do about it.

There was no panic lever.

I couldn't "stop the ride".

I could not change a single thing about the external circumstances I was facing. The only thing I could do was change my own thinking about them.

It is a foundational lesson that has repeated itself over and over personally, in the lives of friends, family, co-workers, and (just about) every other person I've come into contact with. When these situations come up, now (ok, usually) I remember that experience, and the fact that sometimes we cannot control or affect the outcome. We can only how we deal with it in our own minds.

I think often of this quote from His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama:
"If a problem is fixable, if a situation is such that you can do something about it, then there is no need to worry.
If it's not fixable, then there is no help in worrying.
There is no benefit in worrying whatsoever."

I still seldom throw my hands in the air and squee into the plunge of the roller coaster of life when it gets to those huge downward drops.
But at least now, I'm able to open my eyes and loosen my grip on the safety bar...
a little.