The Value of Instability

Our lives are not stable. Our world is not stable. Our days are filled with issues all of us worry about constantly. They range from the well being of our loved ones, the security of our jobs and our ability to meet our financial obligations to world peace, the mysterious sound our car engine makes in the morning and whether our favorite sports team is going to do well. The list, of course, is endless and is filled with issues of consequence as well as those that some might view as trivial. Either way, these worries are a constant part of our days. They fill our moments and if, by chance, they go away, they will be quickly replaced by others. To live a life of non-worry is to not live in reality. Is this a bother? At times, yes. Does it cause us stress? No doubt about it. But would I, for one, have it any other way? Not for a second.

My reason for that is articulated quite nicely in Aldous Huxley's classic, "Brave New World."The premise of this book is that people dwell in an environment of total and controlled stability. As the leader known as "the controller" says, "People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can't get. They're well off; they're safe; they're never ill; they're not afraid of death; they're blissfully ignorant of passion and old age...........they're so conditioned that they practically can't help behaving as they ought to behave." This monologue is all part of the controller's rant against liberty. In his so-called brave new world, stability trumps happiness.

It is an interesting argument. To me, however, it reinforces the reality that is man's own innate desire for happiness. Just as we contend with a constant string of sources of worry each day, we also do what we can to move toward a greater level of happiness. But happiness does not come easy because it is constantly under siege from those very issues that cause us to worry. The two, in many ways, are our constant companions. This relates to communication because the act of communicating, no matter how well planned, is fraught with all manner of noise and potential interruptions. But the challenges that those hurdles represent are what often inspire us to communicate more effectively and then instill in us deeper levels of happiness and pride than we would otherwise have known.