Cage Matches with Uncertainty

I know I’ve shared this insight from Theodore Roosevelt before, but I just love it so much that I’m sharing it twice, plus I want to talk about the arena (where I’m currently getting my trash kicked):

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." 

 

Why do I love this quote so much?

Because every day I end up in an illegal, underground cage match with uncertainty.

And every day, I get pummeled.

What advantages does uncertainty have in our very unfair fight?

-surprise attacks

-always changing techniques

-my own false sense of security before the knockout blow

-aggressive onslaughts towards every aspect of my life (knowing all my targets)

-nowhere for me to strike and thus training for each fight is futile

-all the blacks and whites seem to bleed into varying shades of gray

Which explains why I lose every time. But at least I look semi-tough with blood, sweat, and tears as I fight an invisible, metaphorical enemy.

On second though, I probably look like an idiot thrashing about with no opponent in sight. I should probably rethink my tactics.

I read a really great talk this week though (“On Dealing with Uncertainty”) and the author, Bruce C. Hafen, suggested that ambiguity and the shades of gray in life are not all bad, but that there is a productive response to the unknown, “where we not only view things with our eyes wide open, but with our hearts wide open as well.”

Doesn’t that sound like wholehearted living? Seeing and feeling things as they come?

Anyways, it gave me good techniques for my intense combats with uncertainty, as did some advise from a friend at work this week: that uncertainty allows us to live with open eyes. a.k.a. recognizing a multiplicity of good roads coming our way.

I’m still figuring out how to apply those strategies, but I am also thankful I do have a few certain things on my side: the love of my family, the love and reality of my God, and literacy skills that won’t fade with age.

Maybe I’ll never win any of my cage matches with uncertainty. Maybe that means I should find another way of dealing with it than the uncivilized method I’m using now.

Like a staring contest.

Where I can open my eyes and see possibility instead of dead ends.