Inevitability

We live within lives of inevitability. We will inevitably grow from infancy to full size. We will inevitably be driven by hormones to behave in certain ways in our early years. We will inevitably mature, reflect more and try harder to do better at something, as experience knocks us around. We will inevitably grow older and wiser. We will inevitably have a fatal accident, contract some disease or develop some physical dysfunction, and then inevitably die.

Of course, the inevitable is only for those who survive long enough to experience it. Perhaps the unpredictable is what makes living with the inevitable bearable. "You never know. They may come up with a cure for that." These words are spoken often to people whose focus on the inevitable seems quite rational. The resistance to allowing the terminally ill to end their lives with comfort and dignity reflects this human need to trust the unpredictable over the inevitable. 

I am amused by those who accept philosophies which maintain that all human behavior is predictable and inevitable, based on natural genetic or environmental factors. These left-side brainiacs see us all as walking algorithms. They feel they can write an equation for anything and everything. The scary thing is that they are accurate sometimes. But chance always looms over their statistical predictions, and sometimes proves them dramatically off the mark. The recent global financial crisis is a notable example. Overpopulation, tsunamis and climate change are other examples.

The fatalistic confuse inevitability with powerlessness. "I'm going to die eventually, so why bother with anything!" This is like saying, "Well, I'm going to California from New York, so what difference does it make how I get there?" Try walking in bare feet. Then try a jet. You'll get my point.

Life's inevitability is like a pole star for my practice. I know the hard parts that always lie ahead. I accept the inevitable disappointments in those whom I might trust and love. I accept my own inevitable failure to make everyone happy. Death has approached me so closely three times that I know that exit is somewhere up ahead as I navigate my curving path. However, I also know I can take many turns before them. I know that I will be surprised, sometimes joyfully and sometimes sadly, by events and people I cannot now imagine or predict. 

Who needs a mythical paradise or a manipulating deity to make life more interesting or gratifying? Looking at life as it is fascinates, mystifies and humbles me every day. Mindfully living on the edge between the unpredictable and the inevitable is an extreme sport, which I call my humanist practice.