The phrase, “Everything will be OK,” is a vague and sometimes irritating consolation if we’re not in the mood. But it does work. It’s extremely general, but it has to be; that’s where its true power resides. It works only if I set aside my preconceived notions of control, demand, and expectation. This includes surrendering the presumption that I know what’s best for me, or that I am somehow an expert of the subject of my own life. But what does it mean?

EVERYTHING: It could mean anything, couldn’t it? It could be something very specific, as in “everything concerning that very specific thing.” Or it could mean EVERYTHING, like life. This is rather general and unhelpful.

WILL: Some future point in time, obviously, but when, exactly? Under what preconditions and in what context am I being assured that it “will?” By whom? Is the “will” qualified by the preceding word? Are there other things that maybe “will not?”

BE: Except for the fact that it will apparently “be,” this is not much to go on. Does “everything” reach a particular hoped-for state of being and then stay there? Do I have to do something? And will that moment pass as well? What guarantees are there?

And finally; OK: Just OK??? Wow. Can’t everything be fabulous, or incredible? What’s “OK?” And by whose measure, whose standards, are these everything’s going to be OK at some point in the future? By yours, by mine, or by some guy? I might not agree. Am I free to define it for myself?