Good from Bad

One Plus One was interviewing Alex McKinnon, the Newcastle player who was made a quadriplegic as a result of a tackle when he was 22.
He said something I had trouble getting my head around.  He said as a result of what he has learned, and how much of a better person he is now, he would not go back if he could, to that moment and be able to walk again.
It really got me thinking in the light of something else said to me recently. “I feel such a failure lately.”  Man do I feel that way sometimes.
What it made me consider is how often what is considered bad, and may be bad, turns out for the best.  No reasonable person would ever wish something like that on Alex, yet what was just about the worst thing that could happen, is now considered in a good light.
I have found that with my stroke.  Not good, but am I pleased with where I am?  The answer is a resounding yes.  It seems sometimes what happens gets my attention and works out for good in unexpected ways.
If someone continually gets tickets for speeding, speeding is bad.  If as a result of that he stops speeding it is good.  What was bad worked out for the good.   Sometimes I find life is like that.  Bad things happen but good somehow results.  That in no way suggests I should do bad so good results, but sometimes good results from bad anyway.  It has for Alec McKinnon.  It has for me.  Neither is a desirable event, but good has come from each.
I would suggest it was the only way either of us would get to a better place.  From the way Alex talks he does not like what he was.  He had all the trappings of success yet inside, though he was married, he was alone.  His world excluded others from being a part of it.  He gave lip token to it, but it was about him alone.
It was the same for me.  My world was all about freedom but using that freedom for myself alone at the expense of others.  The tumour and consequent stroke just happened.  Adjustments have needed to be made.  I am not who I was.  But would I want it different?  No if it meant going back to what I was.
Something else Alex said that blew both Stan Grant and I away was “I have had to respect the illness.”  I have never heard it put like that.  What he meant was that, to act like things were different than they were, invariably had bad consequences.  Failing to respect the illness meant trying to walk and collapsing. Simply believing something is different does not make it different.
I see a lesson in that for me.  I need to respect how things are.  I will do all I can to make things better.  But I need to start from a base line of how things are.  Denying the new reality will only prolong my time of despondency.  Alex talked about being in a dark place.  But there is only one thing that dispels darkness and that is light.
If something good is borne of bad it is a good thing.