Does it happen for a reason?

Small children and dogs are certain that everything is
aimed at, designed for, or in reaction to them. To
quote Jim Holt, "Why does it rain in the spring? So
the crops will grow!" Of course, things that happen often happen for no
reason. At least no reason having anything to do with
us. Reasons are nearly always the things we make
up to explain what happened, not the actual cause of
what happened. Whether it's the bird that just
messed up your new car wash or the job that you didn't get because a thousand people applied, there's
a lot more randomness in the world than we'd care
to admit. There are two things to be done with that fact. The
first is to identify the few things that do happen for a
reason and learn from them, as opposed to ignoring
the available lesson. When cause and effect is at
work, figuring out the cause is the single best way to
manage the effect. And the second is to take the (essentially) random
events and choose to respond (as opposed to an
overreaction). The big opportunity is to figure out
how to take advantage of the change that was just
handed to us, even if it wasn't for us, about us, or
what we were hoping for.