Murphy's Law is: If anything can go wrong, it will. Then there is Otoole's Commentary on Murphy's Law: Murphy was an optimist. A related law is the Law of Selective Gravity: An object will fall so as to do the most damage. Corollaries to these laws are:
 
• The chance of the bread falling with the jammed side down is directly proportional to the cost of the carpet.
• If there are only two programs worth watching, they will both be on at the same time.
• If you don't need it and don't want it, you can have tons of it.
• A monetary windfall is always accompanied by a new expense of the same or greater amount.
• If it's good, they discontinue it.
• If everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.
• When the plane you are on is late, the one you are connecting to is always on time.
• No matter which side of the fire you move to, the smoke will come your way.
• The easiest way to find something lost is to buy a replacement.
• To find the difference between a weed and a valuable plant, pull on it. If it is a valuable plant it will come out easily.
• There is no limit to how bad things can get.
 
That's meant to be funny. And it is, but only because we all suffer under the burden of Murphy's Law and its corollaries. Just when we have arrived at a winning life formula, one of life's spoilers always seems to come along. That fact is so dependable that we really have no other choice but to laugh at it and roll with the punches.
 
Good advice. I wish I could always follow it. But sometimes it seems the world is just conniving against me. The latest devil's play I notice is how everyone times their driving to interfere with mine. This morning I drove to the end of the driveway hoping to be able to pull right out onto the road. But no. Mrs. Smarty Pants down the road has evidently been watching me and waiting to drive down the road so that I have to stop for her before I can pull out. There's not another car in sight, and not another one will pass on our remote road for another ten minutes. When I patiently wait the ten seconds for her to pass (it feels like ten years), I drive on to the office. But before I get there I come to an intersection with a stop sign. No cars anywhere in sight, except Mr. Smarty Pants who evidently has been timing his morning in order to make me wait another ten seconds for him to go by. Such events are far too typical to be just chance.

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So, if you are feeling that the world is stacked against you at times, you aren't alone. You aren't the only one who goes to the store and gets the only cart with a wobbly wheel out of the 75 that are there. Me too. You aren't the only one to try to dig a hole in the ground and hit a gigantic root dead on center. Me too. You aren't the only one who tries to do a home repair project and never has the right tool with you, is always missing one screw, and always has one nut that will not come off. Me too.
 
By definition life does not course in a straight line. Even if it did it would intersect other people's lives that are not accommodating or conveniently avoiding ours. Such collisions and the setbacks they cause are unavoidable because our agenda is never perfectly in accord with others.

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But rarely does a bad circumstance befall us for which we are not in some way responsible. So, difficulties and failures are not a reason for despair. Murphy is often just a reminder for some honest self-evaluation and adjustment that could save us from an even bigger catastrophe later.
 
Life intelligently lived is a continuing educational process meant to refine us. Without things going wrong we do not learn. Without making mistakes we can't profit from them. All sun makes a desert. Adversity and setbacks teach us humility, that we are not invincible, that it is not all about us, that we are not perfect, above the law, or superior to others. Those are lessons we must learn to fare well.
 
So don't let life's problems get you down or put you in a helpless mode as if you are being singled out or are a victim without control. No one, no matter how seemingly perfect their life, does not have ups and downs. We must see the valleys in life for what they are, a better vantage point from which to plan scaling the mountain.
 
That may seem a bit glib, as if not being defeated by life's difficulties is really that easy. After all, we all learn early on that life is not easy, that there are highs and lows and that everyone has problems. But when life does not go as we wish or plan, it is easy to react emotionally. We can feel out of control, victimized, and as if our problems are unique in human experience.
 
But our problems are never unique. Others have endured more and overcome. Besides, we all have the best tools to minimize Murphy in our lives. They are the SOLVER principles: Self responsibility, Open mindedness, Long view thinking, Virtuous intent, Evidence first, and Reasoning.

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