Embrace Uncertainty for a Saner 2022
No matter what happens with the pandemic from here, don’t miss its greatest lesson
For Christmas this year, I made two sets of plans: Plan A was to go see my partner’s family a few hours drive away, where a big traditional Christmas day meal would be had. Plan B was to stay home and cook a beef and red wine stew, go for a walk, and probably hang out with our cat.
The curious thing about this distinctly pandemic-era predicament was that I had zero preference one way or the other. In the two weeks leading up to Christmas, it was unclear to us whether it would be wise — or even allowed by our embarrassingly inconsistent prime minister— to travel to see family, so we made two plans and simply waited. About 48 hours before our indented departure day, we made the decision to go. There was very little stress involved.
Let me tell you, this is not how I would have behaved in the same situation two years ago.
Indeed one of the great gifts of pandemic life for me has been increasing my tolerance for uncertainty. Once I had optimized my life for the new pandemic reality in summer 2020, I simply stopped expecting external events to stay predictable and reasonable. I started keeping my expectations reassuringly low, taking little for granted, and tried to take in…
