Uncertainty, irony and hope

FRENCH mathematician Blaise Pascal once said, "We sail within a vast sphere, ever drifting in uncertainty, driven from end to end." It's true. For little in life is certain. And that, for some, is the "fell demon of our fears." Besides death and taxes (from which there is no humanly escape), the only things we can truly count upon, I think, are mathematical proofs, gravity, the passage of time, a child's blissful smile, sunrise and sunset, the omnipresence of the stellar universe, the cyclic march of the seasons, and a dog's delight at its master's arrival. Everything else in life is mostly a crap shoot, a roll of the proverbial dice. And yet, life itself is irony, as Darwin knew. Perhaps author Ursula K. Le Guin put it best when she observed: "The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next." To the chagrin of creationists, every earthly life form, including us, is the end-product of uncertainty, the handmaiden of biological randomness. Despite Einstein's doubts, I think God does play dice with the universe for the sake of the wondrous diversity it creates. Who would deny the sheer wonder of us, the primate known as Homo sapiens? As Bruce Barton said, "Action and reaction, ebb and flow, trial and error, change -- this is the rhythm of living." And of Darwinian evolution. And God's dice. Though uncertainty breeds fear in us, its mastery often sparks hope, and hope is the refuge of progress. Just something to ponder.