TIME WILL TELL
The longer I live the more I have come to realize that bad and good things happen to us all. A bad thing will happen and at that time we are devastated but later on we realize it was all part of the grand design.
To illustrate this point I quote from Robert Schuller’s book, Hour of Power’ “This is a story of a Chinese who had one horse and one son. One day the horse broke out of the corral and fled to the freedom of the hills. The neighbors came around that night and chattered, “Your horse got out? What bad luck!” “Why,” the old Chinese said, “How do you know its bad luck?” Sure enough, the next night the horse came back to his familiar corral for his usual feeding and watering, leading twelve wild stallions with him! The farmer’s son saw the thirteen horses, slipped out, and locked the gate. Suddenly the man had thirteen horses instead of none. The neighbors heard the good news and came chattering to the farmer, “Oh, you have thirteen horses! What good luck!” The old Chinese answered, “How do you know that’s good luck?” Some days later his strong young son was trying to break one of the wild stallions only to be thrown off and break a leg. The neighbors came back that night and passed another hasty judgment: “Your son broke a leg? What bad luck!” And the wise father answered again, “How do you know its bad luck?” Sure enough, a few days later a Chinese warlord came through town and conscripted all able-bodied young men, taking them off to war, never to return again. But the young man was saved because of his broken leg. Who knows what is good for us and what is not?
To illustrate this view further I will cite some of the things that happened in my life, which I thought at the time, were disastrous and bad luck, but in the end turned out for the best or good luck. I am sure many of you can testify to the same equation.
I entered the US Army in the summer of 1943 and went to March Field, Riverside, California. My basic training was with the Aviation Engineers and upon completion was assigned to an engineer company as a clerk/typist. Due to some rearranging of engineer companies I soon found myself transferred to Edwards Air Force base out in the California desert. Losing my position as a clerk/typist was bad luck, but the transfer to the desert was good luck because while there saw some marvelous new inventions for the future. Our company was building a rifle range across the dry lake and day after day we were treated to a spectacle of a jet plane flying overhead. Several days later a Morris Wing plane flew over our building site and later that day a radio-controlled plane was sighted. We were getting a view of the world to come in aviation. If I had not been transferred those sights would never have been observed.
In November 1943 we were called back to March Field and given physicals in preparation to being transferred into a Combat Engineer unit. To an 18-year-old kid this sounded exciting but I was crestfallen to learn I was not included because I didn’t have army prescription glasses to wear and especially to have them in my gas mask, bad luck. I was very disappointed but later on in the war I found out this unit I was to be assigned to have very heavy causalities in combat in Italy, good luck.
In December 1943 we were transferred to an air force base in Kansas. We didn’t even know what kind of a plane was in the unit but soon learned it was the super bomber, the B-29. I was in the ground crew and assigned to the transportation section of the 6th Bomb Maintenance Sqd. Soon after we arrived and after some training in driving army vehicles the unit was shipped overseas, bad luck.
We were jammed into a troop ship (8000 personal) and proceeded out into the Pacific Ocean. We didn’t know our destination but 32 days later landed in Bombay, India. We were in the “land of enchantment and mystery, good luck. We rode a train (3rd class) across India and arrived at an air base not far from Calcutta. The B-29 were serviced and readied for combat and conducted several raids against the Japs in Indo-China and Japan. Early in June I accompanied about 15 other truck drivers to Calcutta to pick up more vehicles but on the return trip was placed in a hospital with an infected right hand, bad luck. It was touch and go for while but the great doctors did save my hand but my outfit moved while there and I had a time locating them, good luck
Soon after finding my unit and returning to duty was reassigned to another unit servicing B-24J (C-109) planes, which flew the “Hump”, carrying gasoline for the B-29 planes to bomb Japan. This operation lasted several months and then the B-29 units were moved to the islands in the Pacific. I was not on the list to go and went into Calcutta to get assigned to some other unit. I again was disappointed not going with my unit and fellows I had been with for over a year, bad luck. The command I went overseas were awarded four battle stars and for you fellows who were counting points to come home this was a bonus as it meant 20 more points. Good luck.
After a month in Calcutta I was transferred to an Air Service Group in northeast India. It was called Assam at that time and my new unit was great, good luck. Not long after I arrived was assigned to work in the lab looking though a microscope, taking smears and blood counts. It was a job that really excited me but alas I was again pulled out of that job and assigned to a Quartermaster Truck Company headed for China, bad luck. I was the new kid on the block as most of the company had been together for about two years and I was always an “outsider.” Bad luck! Soon after I arrived at another air base in India we pulled out and drove the Ledo-Burma Road to China. I was a wonderful experience and I spent the rest of the war in China. Good luck! Over the years teaching the experiences and sights I observed in India and China served me well, good luck.
I always thought I would like to be an engineer so after being discharged from the service in 1946 I enrolled at Iowa State in the spring. My courses were difficult and especially algebra. I had had no math since the 10th grade so with my time in the service that made five years. In the middle of the quarter I had a malaria attack and missed a week of classes. I never did catch up so did very poorly at Iowa State, bad luck. I transferred to Iowa State Teachers College (University of Northern Iowa) and did very well and the best part was I met Connie and we were married in 1948, good luck.
Connie and I graduated from Cedar Falls in 1949 and looked for teaching positions but the only one at all available was at Sabula, Iowa that did not fit our needs. Bad luck so went to Greeley, Colorado to continue my education, good luck. Connie had a position teaching 2nd grade in Greeley, good luck and I received my master’s degree in 1950, good luck.
We again sought teaching positions in Iowa but did not find any, bad luck. In July 1950 we received notice that both of us could teach in Greeley, Colorado, good luck. We taught there for three years. In 1953 my father died bad luck so we decided to come back to Iowa. In response to a Christmas card inquiring about teaching positions at Mason City, Iowa we learned one was open at Roosevelt Junior High School and I applied and got the job, good luck. I taught in Mason City for 25 years, good luck.
In the year 2005 I discovered I had an aneurysm on my aorta, bad luck. But thanks to the doctors at Mayo hospital, Scottsdale, Arizona they repaired it. The discovery was a miracle as it was only by chance that I had ultrasound several days before and the aneurysm was discovered, good luck.
I believe many times that we think something is really bad luck it turns out that was the way it was supposed to be. Look back over your life and you will discover that many times what you thought was bad luck in reality turned out to be the best thing that happened to you. But like the old saying goes if you didn’t have bad luck you wouldn’t have any luck at all.
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