In these uncertain times, it is necessary and proper to take a moment to reflect on Mr. Murphy and his plethora of immutable truths that spring forth from his original observation 鈥� If anything can go wrong, it will.
Each of us has benefitted from two forms of education 鈥� formal and experiential. Our formal education occurred in classrooms with desks and teachers. Our experiential education continues to take place in that school with no textbooks but countless pop quizzes, the School of Hard Knocks. The campus quad is the world, and the tuition varies according to lessons to be learned.
For example, here鈥檚 something I learned at an inopportune time and for which I paid full tuition:
When a man with money meets a man with experience, the man with experience ends up with the money and the man with money ends up with experience.
Who was this erstwhile scholar of the hard knocks school, this wise, experienced man named Murphy? We may never know definitively, but there is credible, if anecdotal, evidence. It was 1949. A Captain Edward Murphy was a project engineer at Edwards Air Force Base in California. He was overheard complaining about an inept aircraft technician, 鈥淚f there is any way to do it wrong, he will.鈥�
And thus, like a rocket into space, Captain Murphy鈥檚 trenchant observation took flight, soaring in the zeitgeist. His initial law and its countless corollaries have flourished and expanded ever since. His peculiar statutory insights into human frailty, bad luck and ruthless fate apply to every profession and every corner of our lives. Each of us has been subject to and suffered the consequences of Murphy鈥檚 myriad laws.
If anything can go wrong, it will. Nothing is ever as simple as it seems. Everything takes longer than you expect. Left to themselves, all things go from bad to worse. Two wrongs are only the beginning. Chipped dishes never break. Everybody is somebody鈥檚 weirdo.
Irrefutable truths, all, but we must be careful, lest we grow cynical. Cynicism is a hazard Murphy made visible. A cynical worldview is a quagmire. The more we struggle, the deeper we sink. The comedian Lily Tomlin once observed, 鈥淣o matter how cynical we get, it is impossible to keep up.鈥�
What then are we to do when confronted with all the aridity and disillusionment Murphy鈥檚鈥� laws summon from the shadows of naivet茅? What would Murphy say?
Murphy would ignore the question and instead observe: Nothing is as inevitable as the mistake whose time has come. Whatever you want to do, you have to do something else first. Whatever hits the fan will not be evenly distributed. Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn鈥檛 have to do it. If everything is going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
If Murphy can鈥檛 answer the question I鈥檝e posed 鈥� how we might avoid an unrelenting cynicism that discolors our worldview 鈥� perhaps I can offer a modest suggestion. To keep cynicism at bay, our greatest defense is laughter. Laughter at ourselves, our predicaments and the absurdities in our daily lives.
And, when in doubt, remember: Murphy was an optimist.