A flat tire? Get it fixed. Keep moving. It doesn’t mean you’ll never have another obstacle. Nor does it matter who is at fault. But neither is it a question of predicting the future. It’s about moving to the next cog, applying a bit of the old oil along the way then slowly but determinedly increasing the gear ratio while keeping your eyes on the road.

Though this paradigm may seem elementary it is pragmatic as well. Dealing with matters other than theoretically is a more reliable way to confront life’s modifications. Its certainty is in fact its paramount attraction.

There are nonetheless alternatives to certainty. I won’t say those postulations are entirely a gamble. If you’re the type of person who can survive without an identifiable result; if you can sleep soundly through days of ambiguity or mere possibility; if you haven’t the need of plausibility or borders, then no doubt you can overcome the hindrance of miscalculation or redirection too. Thus to an extent it’s a question of opinion and options. Perhaps simple forbearance.

Although I have advanced the utility of certainty, it may be the preserve of the obsessive mind to monopolize what is in fact only the demonstrable fiction of regulation. Notwithstanding its validity a putative right turn can just as easily and just as theoretically transform to a wrong one. But there is a limit beyond which the prediction of peril is unwarranted and unhelpful. Once again it isn’t about wagers; it’s about being prepared.

Oddly in spite of the incontrovertible wisdom of these words there is a tendency often to endure or succumb to the inconvenience of the alternative; that is, in the face of pitfalls we mistakenly assume our capacity to leap over or bypass the impediment. What it is that restrains us from adaptability is curious. My experience has led me to conclude that it isn’t overt resistance rather uneducated training or stubborn resolve both of which are characteristic anomalies in any context. And be assured that it is a fault common to those whom you might think were spared the indiscriminate conduct. Indelibility by its nature knows no boundaries.