“Fair only happens once a year by the Ag-Center” I remember my kindergarten-age son responding back to his younger brother in one of their never-ending disputes about something that would be forgotten in about 15 minutes.  I had never heard the saying in my life and paused my mediation efforts to find out what he meant.  My son told me that when someone in his class would say that what was happening wasn’t “fair”, the teacher, lovingly, would try and teach them at that very young age, that unfortunately, fairness isn’t a guarantee in life.  Actually, the only time you can count on “fair” is in September at the Ag Center when the WNC Fair comes to town.  She had distilled one of life’s complex lessons into a saying a kindergartener could understand.  Life isn’t always fair.  (Ironically, one of the cases that I’ve had the opportunity to work on involves injuries at the fair.   

https://wlos.com/news/local/new-case-of-legionnaires-reported-possibly-connected-to-quilt-show and workers’ compensation cases aren’t fair).  

In my career in working with individuals and families in personal injuries and workers’ compensation cases, I’ve learned that accidents don’t discriminate.  They can happen to anyone without rhyme or reason.  It can be absolutely heartbreaking. 

But, along with learning that life isn’t always fair, and that bad things happen to good people – I’ve also seen clients find a silver bullet to defeat their tragedy and be able to continue to live their life.   Clients that are able to walk away with a perspective of “well, it could have been worse” or “there’s something larger at play” are able to move on.  Even if they missed their ticket to the fair, they find a way to move on.   

This post falls on Thanksgiving, which was not by design, but could not have been more timely.  Despite the cumulative unfairness of life from year to date, Thanksgiving forces you to stop, shift your attention away from what went wrong, and focus on what are you thankful for, and there’s always something to be thankful for (see this wonderfully, funny clip from Mike Godwin (https://youtube.com/shorts/DKYy2ze2_l0?si=u9mF4wb9Kvcv2oS) –  Even if you missed the fair, give thanks.  It will make life a better ride than any at the fair anyways.