I don’t subscribe to the ‘Ignorance Is Bliss’ ethos. Give me knowledge any day. Just don’t give me certainty. At least not too much of it. Most of the time, at least, I like the idea that I never quite know what’s just around the corner.
Certainty can take away so much glorious possibility and opportunity. Certainty rarely defines what is, and all too often, what isn’t possible. It’s the enemy of the daring, outrageous, amazing things we see done by people who weren’t certain it couldn’t be done.
Make no mistake, these people weren’t always certain it could be done. They were just prepared to try anyway. They reveled in The Joy of Not Knowing. Not knowing whether it was or wasn’t possible. But prepared to be open minded and be daring regardless.
I have no idea if it’s true or not, but I recall a story about the Titanic and how one one of the reasons it hit that iceberg was because the captain was absolutely certain there’d be no icebergs in that section of ocean. And look at how that turned out. There’s such a thing as being too certain, at least in certain situations.
I’ve personally found it super useful to question my own certainty about so many things. Is this really true? What if it wasn’t? What else might be true? What else might be possible?
I secretly suspect a lot of the best, most amazing things in life are a result of this sort of possibility thinking. Being open to possibilities, no matter how certain you are those possibilities may not be possible.
Because chances are, if you go back or forwards far enough, those things you’re actually certain about, weren’t always that way – or won’t always be. Or aren’t even that way right now. You can be certain of that.
Sputnik
