What goes around comes around: do we deserve it?

You may think of Justin Timberlake’s hit lyrics when you hear the term “What Goes Around Comes Around.” Popular songs have a way of taking an old saying and giving it new expression. But this term means different things to different people.

To some, “what goes around comes around” means you’ll get what you deserve, or the chickens will come home to roost.

To others, it seems to imply that you will get what you are entitled to, or that you will get what you deserve. John Lennon, who had a clear way with words, once wrote:

“Instant karmas will catch you

I’m gonna hit you right in the head

You better get together

Pretty soon you’ll be dead

What the hell are you thinking?

Laughing in the face of love”

So does it all balance out in the end? All of this does not bode well for the average recovering drug addict. The last thing you want is to get what you deserve, and that instant karma doesn’t sound very good.

So why frame this maxim and hang it on the dining room wall of your Therapeutic Community? What does this expression mean in the lives of those recovering from drug addiction?

“What goes around comes around” is about the skill of learning patience. However, the big picture is to provide a coping mechanism to handle the circumstances that life throws at us. Most of the consequences that now come back to us are now out of our control. Life is not fair. We have been dealt a bad hand.

Injustices and setbacks are part of life, of relationships, of trying our best and not being recognized, not being affirmed by what we have achieved, or in relationships yet to be reconciled.

This is all part of the daily routine, but it can serve to discourage those who are recovering. Understanding the meaning of “what happens, comes around” helps the person accept the circumstances and deal with the consequences.

This maxim can have two important messages:

First, patience is required to accept injustice and injustice in our daily lives because these factors are part of life.

Second, although we may feel that the circumstances are not under our control, this does not mean that we should resign ourselves to our fate.

We must move forward with confidence because we are hopeful that things will work out in the future. We are not alone in experiencing these things, and we will not be tested beyond our endurance.

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