The Ups and Downs

We are living in a Chinese parable. Also: Vote!

Paid subscriber workshop on the inner masculine and feminine next Sunday, August 4th at 10 am PDT.

---

The world is so dense with events lately that life itself could cause whiplash. The ups and downs feel like a rollercoaster, back-to-back and unrelenting.

All month, I’ve felt that we are living the Chinese parable of the farmer and his son. If you’ve never heard it, it goes like this:

A farmer and his son had a beloved horse who helped the family earn a living. One day, the horse ran away and their neighbors exclaimed, “What terrible luck!”

The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not.”

A few days later, the horse returned home, leading a few wild horses back to the farm as well. The neighbors shouted out, “What great luck!”

The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not.”

Later that week, the farmer’s son was trying to ride one of the horses and it threw him to the ground, breaking his leg. The neighbors cried, “What terrible luck!”

The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not.”

A few weeks later, soldiers from the national army marched through town, recruiting all boys for the army. They did not take the farmer’s son, because he had a broken leg. The neighbors shouted, “What tremendous luck!”

To which the farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not. We’ll see.”

In our parable, there was the ill-fated presidential debate and the weeks of hand-wringing following. Every neighbor was shaking their head in lamentation. We are doomed, the neighbors exclaimed.

“Maybe so, maybe not.”

Then someone attempted to assassinate a despised former president and presidential candidate. (Perhaps you heard?) There was such a confused mixture of emotions in the immediate aftermath, private and public. The tides of fate were toying with us. There were suddenly think pieces everywhere announcing this candidate’s guaranteed elevation to martyr status; a warrior, his face bloodied and his fist in the air.

We are certainly doomed, the neighbors exclaimed.

“Maybe so, maybe not.”

Then many days later, after weeks of speculation, because of the “broken-leg” debate performance, the current president handed the torch to a vibrant, brilliant woman who immediately lifted the spirits of millions while raising money and registering voters like never before.

We are saved, the neighbors announced.

Throughout it all, amidst every up and every down, I couldn’t help but contemplate the parable of the Chinese farmer. It has been a rapid-fire training in the Tao, and the reality that everything changes. We are surfers on the waves of fortune and misfortune.

And yet. And yet.

The goal is not to live amidst these changes with neutrality or apathy.

Despite the “maybe so, maybe not” changes happening right now, I am undeniably energized by the bright, open window that is Kamala Harris’s candidacy. There is suddenly a visceral sense of fresh air moving through what has been a stuffy, suffocating room. I am hopeful. I am relieved. And I seem to be shyly emerging from fear, allowing myself to once again imagine—after so much grief—that we just might elect a pro-choice woman as president.

We might even, dare I dream, sweep this election and enshrine abortion rights and, thereby women’s rights, in federal law. If we vote. If we vote. If we vote. If we believe, as France and the UK did recently, in the power of democracy to destroy extremism.

I find myself tearing up at the very prospect.

While ever-conscious of our fundamental lack of control over the fates of fortune and the reality that everything changes, we can also ride this wave of hope and do something extraordinary. It remains our lot to stay deeply engaged with the life at our fingertips and the society all around us.

I think we can do this and I think we will.

Register to vote and check your voter registration and get involved.

---

• Our next paid subscriber workshop is next Sunday, August 4th, 10-11am PDT and we’ll explore the inner masculine & feminine.

• Community I Ching in late August — 15% off for paid subscribers.

• Community Dreamwork in September — 15% off for paid subscribers.

• Clinical Training in Analytical Psychology begins January 2025 for a limited group of clinicians seeking a deeper dive.

No 6. Adulthood, Hilma af Klint

---

I’m Satya Doyle Byock, psychotherapist, author of Quarterlife: The Search for Self in Early Adulthood, and director of The Salome Institute of Jungian Studies. My work has been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, Oprah Daily, NPR, The BBC, The New York Post, The Tamron Hall Show, Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper, Literary Hub, and on podcasts like Apple News in Conversation, Pulling the Thread, and The Joseph Campbell Foundation Podcast.