The Salt of Life

I was listening to a podcast during my morning run the other day and at one point one of the guests posed something about how uncertainty is the salt of life. I thought that was a beautiful way to put it. It was profound yet uncomplicated. It made me think. I'm not that old but I have lived long enough to have my fair share of big uncertainties. Uncertainties that felt like everything was hinging on that thing. Uncertainties that seems paralysing. Uncertainties that I wanted to remove at all cost.

It is easy to think that life would be a lot better if we just get everything that we want, just as we like it, when we like it. It is also convenient to think how life would be a thousand times less painful if everything works out for us. But is that really what I want out of life? Is it a life worth living for if I get everything that I aim at? Just a quick look under the rug and I see that it would make life linear and predictable. Would I really want that?

If I look back it is indeed the moments of uncertainties that makes me feel more alive. How was the interview? Will I get the job? Should I really move to a country thousand of miles away from my family? What if things doesn't work out and I have to move back? What if I get laid off? What if I choose this and not that?

The reason why we are so enthralled by stories and movies is because of its element of unpredictability. At least the good ones do. It is that thing that keeps us at the edge of our sit. Did she made the right decision? What will happen to him next?

“Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.”
— Oscar Wilde

Of course real life is different from the movies – but it is not far off. As with a lot of people, learning how to embrace uncertainties all in the midst of chaos is difficult for me. Life is peppered with it and it is healthier to view it as a feature and not a bug. Because without it, it would be like eating cereal for every meal for the rest of your life.