Some years ago a friend sent me the following extract from the Editor’s Letter in the then new Canadian arts magazine Hobo.  It struck me as an unusually thoughtful and eloquent meditation on a subject of fundamental importance in any contemplation of the human condition – the need for uncertainty. Read it and then write a list of all those great truths in your life of which you are absolutely certain. It may take a time to decide, but it won’t be a long list.

The beauty of uncertainty is that it motivates us to seek certainty.  We are compelled to replace doubt with conviction, to replace confusion with clarity.  Nothing is more disparaged than the person who is lost, hesitant and anxious, yet the true path to fulfilment comes from these conditions.  The artist, scientist, entrepreneur, athlete and traveller all embrace uncertainty as their muse. What is going to happen next is more enticing than what is happening now.  The thrill of anticipation, the mystery of the unknown, the open road, mistakes as portals of discovery, the inevitability of change, purpose from chaos, questions leading to answers, failure as the threshold of knowledge.  All of these conditions inform the life of the adventurer, the human being who is engaged and becoming.  The beauty of uncertainty is that it prepares us to embrace life in the face of death, allows us the strength to deal with the freedom to choose.  To willingly exchange the fear of uncertainty for the security of certainty is to admit defeat…