It's so true: when it rains, it pours.
(I know that's a stupid ad slogan for Morton salt, but I'm talking about the more general, aphoristic meaning here.)
It just seems that when bad things happen, a lot of bad things happen all at once. Like disease clusters. I suppose that this phenomenon has something to do with perception--like, when something bad happens, you're more attuned to other bad things--but it can't all be perception. I mean, the bad things are real, they're really happening in quick succession, and there's no question that they're bad things. Sometimes it's a ripple or snowball effect, but sometimes the bad things are completely unrelated.
Like when my aunt, uncle, and grandmother all died in the space of less than a year. When my dog died, my relationship fell to pieces, and then I fell to pieces. And like this weekend, when I got very clear signals that someone I like definitely doesn't like me "that way" (not awful, I'm pretty much over it already, but still, upsetting), a good friend's mother died (definitely, completely awful), and my sister's dog is in the hospital and the prognosis is not good (also terrible).
I suppose that things can happen the other way around, too: good things can happen in clusters and in quick succession. And similarly, perception and a snowball effect are also at work there. I guess I just don't see this inverse theory at work nearly as often, which is a shame.
Posted by thevieve at August 8, 2005 8:55 AMI think people also tend to keep score more closely on the negatives. When a cluster of badness occurs we are quick to count the items and let them weigh heavily on us. But when a few good things happen, we see them singly as good events, but we don't let them cumulatively raise our spirits. We should all do that more.
Posted by: ethan on August 9, 2005 11:08 AM