Getting Comfortable with Uncertainty

Back when I started this newsletter in 2023, I had two things to decide.

What was I going to call it?

And what was the logo going to be?

I decided to call it Seeking Wisdom because it felt like an accurate description of what I felt I wanted to do.

That hasn’t changed, and I still like the name, but I actually want to tell you about the logo.

Granted, I’m no designer (the extent of my practical skills when it comes to designing was using MS Paint back on Windows XP). But still, I was happy with the logo you see below.

In the foreground, a black circle that overlaps a white circle in the back. And in between the two, a grey one.

To me, this was hugely symbolic because wisdom is exactly that.

It’s the act of trying to make sense of things never being fully black or white. It’s a lens we develop through which the grays can be better be understood.

Now, why am I telling you all this?

Because now, three years later, I feel that my understanding of things is more gray than ever.

I’m finding that my position on a whole variety of topics is very seldom black or white anymore. I’m feeling more and more detached from prior beliefs I once had.

At times, this untethered position makes me feel lost and disorientated. I have, for want of a better way of putting it, entered into a space of uncertainty.

Now, that uncertainty was always there and always will be; it’s just that I’m seeing more of it now.

This may sound negative to you, and fair enough, you might be right. But I do feel there is a silver-lining.

And it’s this:

I’m learning the need to live within that uncertainty, that gray, without the impulse to run from it.

I’m learning to sit within it and get as comfortable as I possibly can — in spite of it.

So that gray, that field of disorder between the black and the white, that’s what I’m trying to figure out and why I write to you.

We are not alone in this uncertainty.

We have each other.

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If this resonates with you, write back to me. I’m always curious to hear your perspectives.

Be well, I wish you a great week!

Ben