Ostomy Memories of Uncertainty

SO, THE STORY GOES, DAVID SLEW GOLIATH.  Betting odds were on the big guy, to be sure.  Had Vegas been in existence then, its touts would have taken a real beating.  It’s safe to say, I suppose, that nothing in life is certain, but there is often sufficient predictability to admit that some things are more nearly certain than other things. Yet the reality of uncertainty  -- the certainty of uncertainty, to coin a phrase – impacts every aspect of our daily lives.  People make a living (CPAs, lawyers, economists, etc.) off the business of monitoring the dynamic of risk vs. reward.  Every week during football season, odds regarding who will win come out for public consumption.  Last year, $ 233.03 million dollars was bet on one horse race, the Kentucky Derby.  It’s not just the sporting world that is impacted by the uncertainty of events, of course.  We all live within the whirlwind.  Will my daughter make the cheer leading squad?  What approach should I take when I go in for my job interview?  Will the Democrats hold the House?  Is opting for surgery to reverse my ileostomy a good idea?  How we deal as individuals with the element of probability in our lives will have a demonstrable impact.  Some fear uncertainty; some thrive on it; the down-to-earth person prepares, gets informed, takes a deep breath, and faces it with eyes wide open and a positive spirit.

Hello HenryM.

I do like your perspective on ‘uncertainty’. However, my own perspective is once again coloured by having worked with those ‘victims’ in society who seem to face many more uncertainties than those who are perpetrators of unfairness and injustice. 

In my rhyming ‘thesis’ I did try to address this issue  and I am grateful to you for affording me the opportunity of sharing(& airing)  a poem with you that might be relevant to this thread. (Rarely does anyone else ever read a ‘thesis’ so it’s good to be able to resurrect bits of them every now and then)!

Best wishes

Bill

UNCERTAINTY.

When troubled with uncertainties.
There’s no caste iron guarantees.
Uncertainty will puzzle you
And that can be a struggle to.

Then there’s our society.
Creates so much anxiety.
All the many contradictions.
Just add more to your afflictions.

You either go into a panic.
Or get angry and turn manic.
Uncertainty can get repressed.
Then you end up as depressed.

That’s a whole new different theme.
Which can lower self-esteem
Uncertainty and restlessness.
Can lead you into sleeplessness.

This is when it gets horrendous.
As the pressure is tremendous.
It provokes all kinds of terrors.
Leading to all kinds of errors.

You don’t have to wait too long.
And everything is going wrong.
You need to get your mind to shift.
Try not to let your focus drift.

Draw the curtain from your eyes.
And certainty becomes the prize.
If you use logic as your guide.
You will have a certain pride.

And then the probabilities.
Can turn to possibilities.
It’s then that you will start to know.
More clearly where you want to go.

                                                B. Withers 2012
(p332 in: ‘A Thesis on Constructive Conversations Inversed’ 2012

awesome!