What Can You Do When
Life Isn’t Fair?
Unfairness seems to pervade life. When unfair circumstances affect you, how can you best respond? by John LaBissoniere
for the Blind in Boston (founded in 1832 and operating to this day).
Overcoming the obstacles At the Perkins School her situation began hen I was a youngster, one my to improve. Anne received additional treatmost frequent complaints was, ment for her eyes that enhanced her sight “That’s not fair!” Everything enough so she could read for short periods. had to be fair, and if it wasn’t— As a result, she diligently concentrated on well—it just wasn’t fair! her academic education. Anne also learned When I complained about a perceived sign language so as to communicate with a family injustice, my father would remind friend who was both deaf and blind. Anne me of his often-used phrase, “Life isn’t studied so meticulously that she graduated fair.” He would explain that if I expected as class valedictorian on June 1, 1886. fairness throughout life, I would be sadly In her valedictory address she challenged disappointed because it just wasn’t going her classmates and herself by stating: “Felto happen. low graduates, duty bids us go forth into Of course, I didn’t like hearing that—but active life. Let us go cheerfully, hopefully as I matured, I came to see that inequitable, and earnestly, and set ourselves to find our troublesome and undeserved events occur in especial part. When we have found it, willeveryone’s life. ingly and faithfully perform it; for every Even so, unfair treatment still bothers obstacle we overcome, every success we me—especially when I see it deliberately achieve tends to bring man closer to God perpetrated against innocent, unsuspecting and make life more as He would have it.” people. Perhaps you share a similar reacSeveral teachers and staff members at the tion when you learn that an unscrupulous Perkins School were impressed with Anne’s person has taken advantage of someone or positive attitude, talents, intelligence and a criminal has gone unpunished. persistence. This included school director Furthermore, how do you feel when you Michael Anagnos, who personally recomHellen Keller and Anne Sullivan are personally cheated, lied about, impropmended Anne be accepted by the Keller was she raised in deep poverty, but she was family in Tuscumbia, Alabama, as tutor erly reprimanded or deeply betrayed, or physically abused by her alcoholic father. your reputation is carelessly tarnished? and mentor to their blind, deaf and mute At age five she contracted trachoma, a Realizing such actions are inherently daughter Helen. bacterial infection of the eye. This virulent wrong, our natural human reaction is to Anne Sullivan became the instructor disease was left untreated, causing her to feel distressed and offended. We may then to whom Helen Keller, one of the most respond by turning angry and bitter or seek- nearly go blind. admired women of the 20th century, When Anne turned eight years old, her ing revenge. Alternatively, we may retreat acclaimed as making an extraordinary mother, Alice Sullivan, died of tuberculosis. impact on her life. In chapter four of Helen into sadness or depression and withdraw Two years later her father abandoned both from those who emotionally harmed us. Keller’s autobiography, The Story of My Anne and her brother James to the state Are those effective ways to handle Life, she wrote, “The most important day I infirmary in Tewksbury, Mass., after findunfairness, or are there more constructive remember in all my life is the one on which and productive methods? When life’s events ing it difficult to raise the children alone. my teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, came Conditions at the institution were deplor- to me.” hand us significant troubles or when people able since it was chronically underfunded, treat us unfairly and unjustly, what should We choose how to react we do? How can we weather the upset and in disrepair and severely overcrowded. If that wasn’t bad enough, after just three disappointment we will predictably feel? What does Anne Sullivan’s story illusmonths James died from tuberculosis. trate? Considering the significant troubles A difficult start in life During her four-year stay at Tewksbury, she encountered in her youth, she could Anne received two operations that failed to have turned frustrated, morose and resentConsider the story of Anne Mansfield Sullivan. Born on April 14, 1866, in Feed- significantly correct her vision. However, in ful. She could have ceaselessly complained ing Hills, Massachusetts, Anne’s youth was October 1880, as Anne turned 14 years old, about the unfairness of her upbringing and the hardships she experienced. filled with hardship and adversity. Not only she was accepted into the Perkins School
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