Wow. Turn around for a minute and a little thread becomes a huge rope.

I've enjoyed reading the comments. I think Laura's question strikes a nerve because so many of us have pondered the same issue. I do not want to put words in her post (so to speak) but the one way I have heard it stated most often is "why do bad things happen to good people." When I was younger I had a long winded and mostly misguided response to that question. Then I woke up and realized I really did not even understand the question, so how could I answer it?

As I get older it just seems that much of the problem exists in definitions. Just what is "bad" or "evil". Who can be considered "good". And why are "good" people, even if we could define such a term, supposed to be immune from so much of what we call life? Are we just as upset when supposedly "evil" people get good things like higher paying jobs and healthy grandchildren?

A little personal background here. Following my more self-righteous days when I knew all the answers and had all the solutions, both of my parents were diagnosed with cancer. First my father, with a cancer of an unknown origin that had already metastasized into his spine. Then a couple of months later my mother with breast cancer. My father was diagnosed in February, my mother in the spring. My mother had a major surgery and survived. My father had several major surgeries and passed away 10 days before Christmas.

Why did my mom survive and my dad pass away? Was one event "good" and one "evil"? If I am "good" why did "evil" happen to me in the event of my father's death? If I am "evil" why did my mom survive?

Actually, now I have just come to view both illnesses as events in my life that gave me the opportunity respond in evil or kind ways. I did not come to this realization quickly or easily. It has taken me years (14 and counting so far) to do so. But they were just events - how I ultimately will respond to both of them will determine whether they are "good" in my life or "evil". I must admit that initially I regarded them as evil, and I responded in kind. Like the character Tevye in my favorite movie "Fiddler on the Roof," I have been having a protracted and sometimes intense argument with God. I hope now that I am older and perhaps a bit wiser that I can fashion out of the results of both experiences something positive and good. Truth be known, probably no one will know whether I was successful or not until I am dead and gone.

I just hope that no one thinks that *that* event is a good one! :-)

Freightdawg