Finding Miracles in Death and Taxes - Meb

          Ben Franklin is supposed to have said: Nothing is certain except Death and Taxes. Well, I spent most of today cuddled up to my TurboTax and I have got to say, I don't feel certain about how it all turned out. It has me wondering about certainty. We are often reminded of what Ben had to say around the end of March and the beginning of April when tax season is upon us. But many don't know that Franklin was actually expressing his doubt about  the sustainability of the new nation's Constitution. Written in French to a French scientist, Franklin mused about whether and how long the new nation would survive.

          Certainty is relative, isn't it? Sometimes, it shimmers for us, like the certainty you feel when you hold your first child for the first time and absolutely know you could not, ever, love anyone more. Sometimes, certainty crashes into you, like the certainty one feels at the end of a marriage that allows you to move on, or when a good friend or parent dies and you know they are truly gone from this world and from you. Certainty rings Final, except for when it does not, like when you were absolutely certain and then, suddenly, you changed your mind.

          I don't think that the opposite of Certainty is Uncertainty. It might well be openness and a willingness to take on another person's perspective in order to better understand, or to be curious and explore another possible way or outcome. How different might our wold be if we could learn to take another's perspective and explore our commonalities, rather than be certain in our own beliefs?!

          I am pretty sure, that on many occasions, to leave a question mark at the end of a sentence when one is stating an absolute fact is a good idea. Miracles teach us that even when scientists and doctors tell us something is impossible, the impossible can happen. Grace occurs in those liminal moments between knowing and acting and knowing and considering another path. As Oprah says, 'one thing I know for sure' is that the older I get, the less certain of most things I am.

          Except for those taxes I will pay very soon!