Certainty

Daily Meditation #216–9/26/2022

People who are certain they are right and know what’s best are not much better to talk to than this wall.

What is it that everyone is so certain about?

War.
Economics.
Politics.
Diet.

There is but one certainty and that is the inevitable death of you and everyone you’ve ever known.

While we enjoy a level of comfort in believing in different certainties and we enjoy, perhaps even more, a level of smugness in ending up right over something “certain,” what makes us so sure of anything?

For some, we aren’t even sure what we will eat for supper, yet are certain we know what is right for others in our country, politically.

Certainty can ruin our ability to be open minded to novel ideas, and by extension, new ways of thinking about things. Choosing certainty in many cases can close off our minds much like a blindfold prevents us from seeing.

While you may feel certain about your beliefs and ultimately don’t need to change these beliefs, we should be comfortable holding some level of uncertainty within us, being willing to question if we are right or wrong.

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These are distillations from my coming book “YouDaimonia: the Ancient Philosophy of Human Flourishing.”