Today’s life question.
For me, security in life depends on maintaining tight control of my actions. I use reason and logic to organize and protect me from outside forces. Good as my skill might be in anticipating and deflecting threats, there are still surprises. Life isn’t predictable. It doesn’t signal it’s moves. I could do a better job if I knew what was coming and had time to prepare but that isn’t how life works. We have to roll with the punches, bob and weave and put up a front while scrambling to deal with immediate problems and maintaining a steady hand on the tiller to stay on course.
Who’s in charge?
Just like the mixed metaphors in the preceding paragraph indicate, it is messy staying in control. Every time a plan seems to be working something will happen to mess it up. It’s not just external forces that threaten order. There are also the threats to peace of mind that come from within. Logic and reason are limited in preventing and deflecting self criticism coming from my emotional side. Deny it as I try, emotion can slice through logic and drag me down to despair in an instant and once I go down, it is a long struggle for logic to regain control and lift me up.
If logic is like a stream, then emotion is like an ocean.
Streams have direction and landmarks. They are easy to navigate even if they present limited options. You start here and you end up there. Just go with the flow.
Oceans are vast with no starting point and no obvious end. There are no landmarks to help you measure your progress and oceans have big waves whose ebb and flow disrupts navigation. Unseen currents lurk beneath the surface capable of diverting your course without your knowledge and leaving you only the illusion of control.
The logical part of my mind wants life to be linear, like a stream. Actions have predictable consequences. You can see a clear path to follow. Outcomes are the result of planning and action. Application of logic will ensure a good outcome. If only life were like Geometry the world would be a good place. Instead, life is chaos.
The emotional side is like an ocean, vast and deep with unknown currents. There is no beginning and end and no inevitable destination or course. The options are legion but since you can’t see them or tell where you are going, how can you choose wisely, or even chose at all?
So what good is logic and reason anyway? If logic is no help in managing life then how did we ever get fooled into following it? If emotion really controls life, then why is it so darn inscrutable? Finally it raises the question of control. Can a human being take charge of his life or is he merely foolish pawn of life’s forces, preening and posturing but ultimately helpless as he is swept through life?
My one satisfaction in life is that what success I have is because of focused reasoning and application. I like to think that I deserve credit for that. But maybe I had nothing to do with it. If logical thinking is irrelevant to life, what I value in myself is a mirage. This is a most distressing thought that I now have to consider. If life is controlled by emotion I am powerless to manage it’s direction, or am I?
