Uncertainty is what is happening now. The world is on fire according to the news of the day. If it’s not one thing that the world is doing to destroy your life, your world, your family, your fitness, your health, it’s another thing.
The phrase that is being used today or the versions of it are, “In these uncertain times.” or “These challenging times,” or, “These difficult times.” Well, it always is those things.
You see the world has always been difficult and uncertain. It’s likely not news to you. But, there is a suggestion in today’s thinking that fairness is a right. That freedom from disease, pestilence, or destruction is a birthright, well it’s not.
Uncertainty is Natural
In 2004 a 9.3 earthquake created a tsunami killing about 280,000 people.
In 1870 the Bhola cyclone in Bangladesh killed half a million people.
The central China flood of 1931 killed an estimated 2 million people.
12 million Ukrainians starved to death by Stalin’s oppressive starvation of their country and subsequently, there are an estimated 6.1 million birth defects because of malnutrition.
Beginning in 165 AD the Galen Plague in Rome killed 2000 people a day.
No, it’s not special it’s not rare it’s a blip on the radar of history and here we are in these present times.
The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius the famous stoic said, “Reject your sense of injury and the injury disappears.” Now a broad statement and hard to deal with when you’re talking about some of the tragedies, I listed but many things can be dealt with in that fashion that Aurelius suggests.
Yes, terror, injury, pestilence, death, these things are brutal but if you deal with the idea of uncertainty, like Where am I going to get a haircut and what am I going to order out for dinner tonight or why can’t I go to the gym?
Now listen to the words of Marcus Aurelius, “Reject your sense of injury and the injury disappears.” History has a poker hand and it is ready for you and it is full of jokers. The only certainty you have is how you decide to hold the cards you’ve been dealt.
Here is another angle on the damage a negative view can create in your life: Fallen Stories
What would this be without a link to a TED talk?: Embracing Uncertainty | Joshua Bailey
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