The 50 Percent Theory of Life

I believe in the 50 percent theory

Half the time things are better than normal

The other half they re worse

I believe life is a pendulum swing

It takes time and experience to understand what normal is

And that gives me the perspective to deal with the surprises of the future

Let 's benchmark the parameters：yes I will die

I 've dealt with the deaths of both parents

A best friend a beloved boss and cherished pets

Some of these deaths have been violent before my eyes

Or slow and agonizing Bad stuff

And it belongs at the bottom of the scale

Then there are those high points：

Romance and marriage to the right person

Having a child and doing those Dad things like coaching my son 's baseball team

Paddling around the creek in the boat while he 's swimming with the dogs

Discovering his compassion so deep it manifests even in his kindness to snails

His imagination so vivid he builds a spaceship from a scattered pile of Legos

But there is a vast meadow of life in the middle

Where the bad and the good flip flop acrobatically

This is what convinces me to believe in the 50 percent theory

One spring I planted corn too early in a bottomland so flood prone that neighbors laughed

I felt chagrined at the wasted effort

Summer turned brutalthe worst heat wave and drought in my lifetime

The air conditioned died the well went dry

The marriage ended the job lost the money gone

I was living lyrics from a country tunemusic I loathed

Only a surging Kansas City Royals team buoyed my spirits

Looking back on that horrible summer

I soon understood that all succeeding good things merely offset the bad

Worse than normal wouldn 't last long I am owed and savor the halcyon times

The reinvigorate me for the next nasty surprise and offer assurance that can thrive

The 50 percent theory even helps me see hope beyond my Royals 'recent slump

A field of struggling rookies sown so that some year soon we can reap an October harvest

For that on blistering summer the ground moisture was just right

Planting early allowed pollination before heat withered the tops

And the lack of rain spared the standing corn from floods

That winter my crib overflowed with cornfat

Healthy three to a stalk ears filled with kernels from heel to tipwhile my neighbors '

Fields yielded only brown empty husks

Although plantings past may have fallen below the 50 percent expectation

And they probably will again in the future

I am still sustained by the crop that flourishes during the drought