Life's Inevitable Pandora Commercials

So I have this amazing station on Pandora. Through the wonderful function of "like" and "dislike" I have molded and shaped what started as, "Solo Piano Radio", down to what I would constitute as the soundtrack to my life. It's been over a year in the making and I only recently perfected this beautiful medley that I usually put on to wind down from the day and read.

Currently I'm reading The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis. The station tempers my mind and eases my frustration as a I am forced to reread paragraph after paragraph of Lewis' incredibly intellectual rhetoric. Sometimes I will really get on a role and as I digest one meaningful passage after another I begin to drift off into a beautiful and peaceful place of oneness in my mind and heart. I find myself perfectly comfortable and content with all of life and accepting of all circumstances. I've got my comfy bed or couch, I've got my favorite author, and I've got Heaven's melodies resonating from my iPhone dock as it plays my "Solo Piano Radio" Pandora station.

Then it happens. One magnificent instrumental beautifully comes to an end as I amiably anticipate the next one I am instead greeted with:

"AT $399 A MONTH FOR A 30 MONTH LEASE YOU CAN BE QUALIFIED TO PURCHASE A BEAUTIFUL MERCEDES BENZ FROM MERCEDES BENZ OF ESCONDIDO. VISIT US 1101 WEST 9TH AVENUE IN ESCONDIDO FOR THE LOWEST RATES ON ANY MERCEDES IN CALIFORNIA. CLICK THE BANNER AND FIND OUT MORE INFORMATION ABOUT HOW YOU CAN ENJOY YOUR HOLIDAYS IN STYLE "

All harmony flies out the window as my flow is utterly disrupted. It reminds me of when I was a kid and I refused to wake up in the morning to go to school. After three times of asking, my mom would come up to my bed and aggressively pull the covers straight off from me. It's a sort of "yanked from the womb" type of feeling. Peace and tranquility are gone, replaced by a startling realization that the opposite of my previous state exists and it is currently shoving my soul into a locker like a bully does to a high school freshman. 

Of course this 20-30 seconds of terror eventually ends but it can take me a few minutes to get back into my groove of contentment. Sometimes I never recover at all. 

Such is life right? Sometimes it's going so well. The birds are singing, the sun is shining, things are good. Everything is where it should be and I'm at a perfect emotional equilibrium. Then the proverbial Pandora commercial hits. A complaint comes through at work, or I get word that something bad happened to a close friend or family member, or for no reason at all, an old thought or feeling surfaces that causes fear, anxiety, loneliness, or worse. 

There's an unnaturalness to it all. I want to say, "This isn't how it's suposed to be! I made life's playlist a certain way! I 've been scheming for years to 'like' some things and keep them around, and 'dislike' other things to keep them away. I want my life's playlist to be perfect! Where did this come from and why do I feel so powerless over this circumstance?" No matter how much I wish it, circumstances that disturb my peace will never go away. Ever. At least not on this side of Heaven.

So then I'm left with a choice. How long am I going to let this event bother me? How long will I let this feeling linger and spoil my current tasks? Some days are better than others. I think accepting the fact that these disruptions are inevitable, that I am not entitled to seamless joy and euphoria, is pivotal. The next beautiful song will come eventually. I've just got to be patient. All things pass. This will too. 

I suppose I could just pay for the premium version and skip the ads. 

Nah that would be cheating.