Life is complicated. That’s a nice way of saying that, for most of us anyway, life comes at us faster, messier and with less clarity than we often long for. People often feel like there is not enough to hang onto, not enough that we can rely on, not enough that is certain. Don’t despair! You are not alone, the challenge is not new, and there are things we can do to make it better.
It was this week — November 13, 1789 to be specific — that Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter to a friend in which he said, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Famous words, but are they true? Is that really all that is certain? What else is certain in your life? Is certainty really all it’s cracked up to be?
The short answers, at least for me, would be: “not really”, “no”, “many things”, and “that depends”. How would you answer those questions?
Franklin was talking about the fact that there are certain unpleasant physical realities which we should probably just accept as immutable. Though even that is a bit ironic in 21st century America, where political careers are being made and lost over people demanding that the most fundamental structures of taxation be revisited, and the capacity to extend life is increasing faster every day. Either way though, there is more to life than those issues.
We can be certain that cultivating gratitude will help make us happier. We can be certain that love is not a zero sum commodity whose value goes down when shared with others. We can be sure that being compassionate — both with ourselves and with others — creates greater levels of calm in our lives. We can extend Ben Franklin’s wisdom by embracing these scientifically demonstrated certainties.
We can also admit that while certainty is a very important thing for most of us, so are surprise, discovery, novelty, and creativity. Those are the very opposite of certainty, and yet we want them too!
In truth, and to varying degrees, we crave both certainty and uncertainty. Too much of the former equal boredom, while too much of the latter equals chaos.
To the the extent we keep in mind that more is certain than we often remember, and that we need both certainty and uncertainty in our lives, we will cope better with whichever one we are feeling a little long on at any given moment.
Listed for many years in Newsweek as one of America’s “50 Most Influential Rabbis” and recognized as one of our nation’s leading “Preachers and Teachers,” by Beliefnet.com, Rabbi Brad Hirschfield serves as the President of Clal–The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, a training institute, think tank, and resource center nurturing religious and intellectual pluralism within the Jewish community, and the wider world, preparing people to meet the biggest challenges we face in our increasingly polarized world.
An ordained Orthodox rabbi who studied for his PhD and taught at The Jewish Theological Seminary, he has also taught the University of Pennsylvania, where he directs an ongoing seminar, and American Jewish University. Rabbi Brad regularly teaches and consults for the US Army and United States Department of Defense, religious organizations — Jewish and Christian — including United Seminary (Methodist), Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (Modern Orthodox) Luther Seminary (Lutheran), and The Jewish Theological Seminary (Conservative) — civic organizations including No Labels, Odyssey Impact, and The Aspen Institute, numerous Jewish Federations, and a variety of communal and family foundations.
Hirschfield is the author and editor of numerous books, including You Don’t Have To Be Wrong For Me To Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism, writes a column for Religion News Service, and appears regularly on TV and radio in outlets ranging from The Washington Post to Fox News Channel. He is also the founder of the Stand and See Fellowship, which brings hundreds of Christian religious leaders to Israel, preparing them to address the increasing polarization around Middle East issues — and really all currently polarizing issues at home and abroad — with six words, “It’s more complicated than we know.”