Uncertainty

I am taking a course at the  local Academy for Lifelong Learning titled "Uncertainty".  So far it's touched on matters philosophical, psychological and religious, even legal, medical.  In fact it has answered no questions at all and generally been an unsatisfactory course.  I even gave a presentation called "My life on the fringe of the lunatic fringe: a life of uncertainty." The themes were the many oddities I've explored from graphology to palmistry to the  I Ching to Buddhism. The latter has helped me believe that I can live comfortably with uncertainty about the big questions for which I think there are no discoverable answers, e.g., life after death, yes or no? Is the universe meaningless?, etc.  I'll only know the answer to the first after I die and I'll never know the answer to the latter nor to many other "big" questions. I live day to day and don't need those answers.

It's the little itches that irritate, the mosquito bites of uncertainty that come up in the course of the day: Today the uncertainty is not will Hurricane Sandy hurl wind and rain at Cape Cod -- it's already started and everything is closed today and probably will be tomorrow.  The uncertainty is when and for how long will I have to deal with a power outage?  I have sufficient food and many things I could do, but I need electricity for the things I want most to do, especially as my eyesight is not great and candle light (although I have sufficient candles) will not permit me to read very long.

If I find myself with many dark hours I could use that time to do yoga and mediate but I know that I would not do that a large portion of the time and I know I would not sleep a large portion of the time.  I could find people to talk to for part of that time, and perhaps I will.  But the question is: will it be just a few hours or will it be a day or two?  Last year's much smaller hurricane caused less than 12 hours of outage for me. No great inconvenience. But for some other parts of the Cape power was out for up to a week.  The power company says they are better prepared now. I hope so. Of all the world's many uncertainties, weather is, perhaps, the one most uncertain for more people. Weather is a force before which we must all bow our heads and admit we can only endure as man and beast has had to endure throughout all of earth time.