There's a slightly overused parable about some ancient chinese farmer and his apparent stoicism towards fate. He loses a horse and in turn makes everybody wonder why he doesn't seem stressed about it. His response? You never know. Later the lost horse returns, with a bunch of wild ones in tow. But the farmer doesn't feel like celebrating either. Because, you never know. Then his son gets bucked and breaks his leg. Same answer, you just never know. Ultimately the army rolls into town and drafts all the young men, but sparing the injured son. You never know, and so on and so on.

Judging from the story life seems like a neverending cascade of therefor and thens. Things go up, things go down, but you never what what stroke of fate might turn out to be a blessing in disguise and vice versa. I figure the morale of the story isn't exactly about being comfortably numb, but not going crazy in the face of change. That said, I like the whole Dylan Thomas thing about raging against the dying of the light. On the other hand, the sun doesn't care about a rooster standing on a dung heap, burning and raving at close of day. It's romantic, but there's things that can't be changed by sentiment, or attitude for that matter. Doesn't matter how strong you feel about it. Your feelings won't stop the sun from setting.

Oh by the way, your text reminded me of that old Kenny Rogers song that used gambling as a metaphor for life: