The below quote appears at the very beginning of Mark Harris‘s “Mike Nichols: A Life,” which was published four months ago.

I’m a bit puzzled by the line “disaster can reorder our lives in wonderful ways, and then you go on to the next thing.”

I’ve never considered the idea of a disaster being any kind of wonderful experience. The only wonderful thing about getting hit in the side of the head by a waffle iron is what happens in the aftermath — you’re forced to either sink or swim when it happens. According to romantic Nietzschean principles, it makes you stronger by toughening your resolve and determination, or else you drop to your knees and lose your confidence or whatever.

I know that after a certain point in life most people (as in 98% or 99%) aren’t that interested in do-or-die scenarios. But they happen all the same.