Control

Watching events unfold these past few weeks reminded me of a poster I saw back in the late eighties. It featured a large picture of the infamous Berlin Wall being torn down and was captioned "Just because someone is in charge, doesn't mean everything is under control." Indeed, nothing seems under control anymore as laws, rules of conduct, fundamental rights we thought were guaranteed by our Constitution, and even the world order are being systematically ignored or flagrantly abused.

The impact is likely to be grave and long lasting, but in the present it is manifesting among many folks I have spoken to in the form of rampant insecurity. The seeming unpredictability of actions being taken on a day by day--sometimes hour by hour basis have shaken many people's faith, and one pastor friend of mine reported such a sharp increase in requests for counseling and solace that his ministry team was overwhelmed. I hear the same from a therapist, whose clinic has been swamped with new patients.

Are people over reacting or are their fears genuine? I'm not going to attempt to take on this question from a political or economic perspective--but certainly the sheer pace and degree of change that is being forced on the American people is more than a little challenging. Change, of any kind and any degree always poses some degree of uncertainty for most people. Massive change such as we are experiencing, exposes a fundamental cognitive disconnect affecting many more, because it exposes the myth we have carefully constructed that things really are under control.

Let me put it in another way. Most of us work very hard to construct a stable life for ourselves and our loved ones. I might have said predictable but we do realize that we must constantly adjust to small, generally incremental changes around us and sometimes bigger more lasting ones than we may wish for. But when change comes at warp speed, and fits no pattern we have prepared ourselves for our sense of control is threatened; we may no longer believe we have agency, nor the ability to restore our prior state of apparent control.

The truth is that we never had control, despite all the emotional, physical and intellectual capital we have spent over our lives pursuing it. It is an illusion, one that can be shattered in an instant, but an illusion we carefully preserve or face the possibility that we are always subject to a capricious universe. Faith, in a benevolent God, in an ordered universe, in a life beyond the one we live on Earth, they are what we turn toward in times of crisis and when we are forced to admit we ourselves have no control over what has, or will transpire.

The facade of control --of personal, and durable control over our fate crumbles unless we acknowledge from the start that we never had it--only the momentary appearance no matter how much insulation we wrap around ourselves in the form of wealth, material objects, reputation, or power. All these can be taken from us at any time, because, as we fail to acknowledge, time in the end has the final word.

How then should we deal with the sense we have lost control, that events are overtaking us and our future is threatened? First, by acknowledging those very real threats and by taking such actions as we are able to protect ourselves and our loved ones. But we must do so with a realistic sense of what we can do as individuals and where possible, seek out others like us who share similar values and concerns to help each other through the difficulties ahead. In community we can find strength and shared resolve.

That shared resolve can extend far beyond our immediate circle and we should reach out to all who find themselves upended by the forces of inimical change. We are not alone and neither are they if we bring them into our circle of solidarity. Our new found awareness of the fragility of our circumstances cannot drag us under if we think about that future we wish to preserve in terms beyond the present. Change is a pendulum, it swings in many directions but we must have both faith and patience to see it through. And when it swings in our favor we and those who share our resolve must be prepared to seize the moment to forge a new path forward.

Change is a rainstorm, it will fall whether we wish it or not. Let it fall, seek shelter where you can, weather the storm and find comfort and support with others, and when the storm has passed make ready to rebuild better than before.