Haibun: Changing Stories

I could be having the best day, then I hit my toe, scrape my hand, and I start to notice what else could go wrong. Soon I’m focused on things that aren’t what they should be. I start to define my day as going bad.

Now take that in a different direction. There’s this way of buying new sport cards worth $500 or more, it’s called breaking. The idea behind it is that there could be 30 spots. I buy a spot and 30 other people do the same. I am then given a randomly selected team, and if a rare card is pulled from the box or case, I am mailed that card. So, if I pay $100 to get into that break and I pull a $1000 card, I might feel pretty special, like I’m having a good day or week if I hit two cards of value worth $1500 or more, well, I absolutely know I am having a great week.

The crazy thing is, we are constantly at the whim of randomness. Random things are always happening around us. I know I’m not alone in taking these random things and creating meaning from them. We are all wired to make meaning out of random events, we are wired to make stories out of them.

It’s the momentum of these stories that I use to tell myself if I’m having a good day or bad, and out of that story, I look for more evidence to support that meaning of that story. 

So, when the wind changes, I add value to what that wind means when it is just a change in pressure.

desert winds means cold
days becomes warm or fall becomes
summer yet again