If you’re wondering what the Nova effect is, there is an ancient Taoist parable about a farmer who lived near the border of the Chinese territory that beautifully illustrates it.
The farmer, who lived far away from the city, saved up small amounts of money and bought a beautiful white horse. Upon hearing this, all his neighbours visited him. “What a healthy and beautiful horse. You are in good luck”
The farmer couldn’t help but smile at his own luck. However, his father who was undisturbed by this, proclaimed, “Good luck, bad luck, who knows!”
The next day, the farmer found the horse had run away into barbarian territory. The farmer was devastated. All his savings vanished into thin air. Even the neighbours expressed grief, “Such bad luck”. But watching from the corner of the room, the father whispered, “Good luck, bad luck, who knows!”
As days passed, the farmer finally made peace with the parting. But before he could move on completely, the horse returned. Accompanied by the horse were a group of other barbarian horses. “Ahhaa, what good luck.” everybody congratulated him. But the farmer’s father kept saying, “Good luck, bad luck, who knows!”.
As in the olden days, a house with several horses was considered a rich, well-fed house. Thinking that their life was soon going to change, the farmer’s son tried to ride one of the untamed horses. But he fell down and broke his leg. Again, the neighbours came running and started offering their sympathies for this misfortune. The farmer, who was tired from all the rollercoaster of emotions cursed his luck.
The village the farmer lived in was part of a kingdom that was constantly at war with the barbarians. So a few days later, news spread that the king announced war with the neighbouring barbarian kingdom. Citing the lack of foot soldiers, all the able-bodied men were asked to get drafted into the military without excuses. As luck would have it, the farmer’s son was spared because of his broken leg and all the inexperienced soldiers were killed in the battle.
The neighbours gossiped about how the farmer was lucky that his son was safe while their sons returned home injured or dead. At this exact moment, the farmer remembered his father’s words and responded, “Good news, bad news, who knows!”
And so goes the story.
The idea that this story brings is that your misfortune could actually be a gift while your blessings could be a curse(Nova effect). Nobody can predict it. Everything is the interplay of the Yin and Yang or the light and the shadow. No event in and of itself can be judged as good or bad, lucky or unlucky. But only time can tell the whole story.
Just like how the farmer’s father didn’t get bothered by every outbreak of news, we shouldn’t divide life into good events and bad events like a pile of laundry. Life is meant to be experienced as one single event as a whole.
The Nova effect basically illustrates that every perception of your bad luck may actually be good luck and vice versa. We humans always regret or feel bad that something happened in our lives without seeing the other side of the story. What we shrug off as insignificant can possibly shape our lives for good.
What seems bad now will someday feel like the best thing to ever happen to you.
Maybe the farmer’s son was alive that day because his horse had run away several days earlier. It’s crazy how everything that could happen days apart could be still connected and linked in such mysterious ways. The reason why you ended up being you was because of the permutations and combinations of good luck and bad luck affecting your decisions.
There is good luck in tragedy. A lost job becomes a world of new opportunities and the end of a relationship becomes the start of a better one. The universe works in mysterious ways.
So, let’s stop trying to divide our moments and decisions into good ones or bad ones. Hidden in the blanket of bad luck is a blessing in disguise. You should just take everything that happens in your life, as it comes.
In the words of the farmer’s father, “Good luck, bad luck, who knows!”
Now that you know what the Nova effect is, have you ever heard of the placebo effect?
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