Suffering from anxiety as I do, I often crave
certainty. I don’t just crave it, I demand it. I want to feel safe, safe from
the terrors of the unknown, for the unknown promises uncertainty, foreboding, darkness
and potential misery.
If I am certain, then I am safe. If I am certain,
then all will be well.
That is all I ask.
Not everyone is a fan of certainty, the physicist
Carlo Rovelli believed that a complete lack of doubt was undesirable, and that
certainty about everything had the potential to be damaging.
 |
| Will I only acheive certainty by doing nothing? |
But not to the anxious.
“Certainty
is the death of wisdom, thought, creativity.”
Shekhar
Kapur
Strangely, I have done things in my life that have
brought me no certainty - single parenthood and self-employment, instead of the
security of Mr Nice, a white picket fence and a secure job.
Perhaps deep down, I want risk and excitement but
with the promise of a happy ending.
Sadly it doesn’t work that way.
“There
is no certainty, there is only adventure.”
Roberto
Assagioli
I want adventure but with a promise of certainty,
but adventure cannot bring certainty, only risk.
But what is it David Bowie said in Law, Earthlings
on Fire, “I don’t want knowledge, I want
certainty.”
Except I would like both.
Perhaps I should follow Bertrand Russell’s advice
and study philosophy.
“To
teach how to live without certainty and yet without being paralysed by
hesitation is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy, in our age, can do for
those who study it.”
Bertrand
Russell
To live without certainty and yet not be paralysed
by hesitation.
So it is to finally accept uncertainty in my life and not be crippled by doubt or;
To have certainty in my life, but without the joy
of risk and adventure.
It is a difficult choice.
