The Zen of uncertainty
◊ I live my life by two laws of physics: the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and the Mediocrity Principle.
Now, I know it doesn't make me look like an assertive go-getter intent on sinking her claws into life and tearing out the meat in great, bleeding chunks, but bear with me.
Once you get past words like "visualizability" and the sheer terror caused by the phrase "quantum mechanics," they break down to two things: you can't measure something without influencing it, and every place is a lot like all the other places.
When you tear it down like that, it's a lot like Zen.
When where you are is just like everywhere else, you are not constrained by geography. You are truly yourself no matter where you go. You don't need to build elaborate selves to parade in front of different people. You just are.
And you cannot truly be and truly enjoy yourself if you are constantly assessing where you're going, what you're doing, what you're missing, and what you're hoping for.
I know this, and I know it well, but it is hard to embrace surrender.
I know that padding around my house and pondering the fact that nobody calls me back does not invite the universe to supply amusement. But I cannot stop thinking about how bored and frustrated I am.
It is only when I freely and unthinkingly surrender that I am rewarded.
I shuck the sexy new hip-huggers in favor of my grubbiest pajamas, put on a crappy television show, slop hair dye all over my head, line up my newly bought cans of chicken broth and veggie chili in two rows across the carpet in accordance with some mysterious internal logic, and break out the nail polish.
And the phone rings, just like magic.
Lao-Tzu would've been one hell of a physicist.