Upbringing

I was brought up in a rather goal-oriented family. You did something, and then it was done. You said something once and it was said. A task was taken on and completed. Rules were rules.

For years I thought that was the way the world worked.

But it doesn’t. Things may get done, but then they need to be done again and again and again. Entropy kicks in, and things break, wear out and change. But most of all agreements tend to erode. They need to be re-negoiated, and re-thought – on occasions rather frequently. Attitudes change; laws change. Everything changes.

Every agreement needs to be revisited, perhaps more often than we might like to think.

The trouble is that as we get older we sometimes don’t want to do that.

The trouble is that some people are so desperate for certainty that they can’t see this basic truth.