The Illusion of Control

Let’s start today’s letter with this question: “Why do we fear uncertainty?”

The fascinating thing about this fear is that it’s quite irrational.  As the cliche goes, the only thing we can be certain about is uncertainty, so we should be at peace knowing that uncertainty is the only given throughout our lives.

Yet what we actually feel is the opposite.

We do everything in our power to build patterns that indicate predictability in our lives.  We set up daily routines so we can forecast our days with accuracy.  We mark future dates on our calendars with the assumption that we will attend them.

This is our attempt to fight entropy, or to create order out of chaos.  It’s our way of organizing the cacophony of reality into the cadence of the heartbeat.  Regular.  Predictable.  Certain.

But of course, while we may win the battle against entropy on any given day, we know that entropy ultimately wins the war.  Our cells eventually deteriorate, our organs eventually wither, and the body one day fails.  This slow descent to nothingness is what we are all bound by.  The king reaching the heights of power crosses the same finish line as the peasant toiling in the fields, and what’s most fascinating is that this is common knowledge.  No one bats an eye upon hearing this.

But here’s the thing.

While no one frets about the existence of the finish line, almost everyone frets about the manner in which they reach it.  Death is an inevitability, but the way in which it’s reached is not.