The arbitrary nature of life
- Martyn Foster
- Jun 12
- 2 min read
Explaining the inexplicable.
It happens regularly when we encounter moments in our lives that are difficult to understand. Except, it’s more than that. It’s beyond comprehension. “Make it make sense”, you may cry. There are things which our hearts and minds fail to rationalise, justify and/or accept. Much like this week with Australian professor Richard Scolyer, a cancer researcher dying of cancer. It really upset my mum, bemoaning another good person being taken from us while so many more morally questionable people remain.
So, I thought I’d write a poem covering the topic. Maybe this way we might be able to reconcile the irreconcilable.
The arbitrary nature of life
Explaining the inexplicable
How to make sense of nonsense?
Why do bad things happen to good people?
We feel we’ve been sold a false bill of goods
Our moral framework has been shattered
A betrayal of the ethical
Punish the good, reward the bad – the table has flipped!
Where is the sense of justice?
Where is the fairness in life?
Life is not fair! They say,
Too easy a dismissal for a moral conundrum
We’re all equal in death
But our deaths are not
“Gone too soon”, I hope not
Overstaying my welcome, I wish not
A dissonance of mind
A disturbance in heart
Unable to resolve
The conflict rages on
Is it a part of some grand design?
The unmoved mover
But if God exists
How does He let this happen?
The price of free will
The flawed nature of beings
Randomised consequences
The suffering of a fallen world
No one really knows
Not an excuse we accept
Our minds cannot rationalise
Our comprehension is too limited
There are some things we cannot plan for
And others we cannot deny or suppress
Deviation from the well-laid idea
Running from the inevitable
The arbitrary nature of life
Not a cynical throwaway line
But an embodied, compassionate comfort
A faithful lozenge to soothe the soreness of the soul
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