On The Ongoing Stress Of Everyday Life

Unexpected 400$ fees, lost cheques, broken dishwashers and pregnant hamsters... The beauty in the breakdown, to say the least.

We go about our lives in a constant state of risk management. We plan our finances, our budget, our future, our degrees, our careers. We draw up timetables, graph our annual income, fill filing cabinets, alphabetize our text books and get the weather forecast forwarded to our e-mail account.

And yet.

The unexpected never ceases. We can run, but we can't hide. We can plan, but we can't avoid the insanity of what lies just around the bend.

In a sense, how we deal with these things makes us who we are.

If the chaos of existence were a bull, there are some that would grab the bull by the horns, wrestling with the chaos until they could throw it to the ground. Others would chant their beliefs at it, soothe it to sleep with ideology. Still others would be riding the bull, bareback, whooping with joy.
Myself, I'm inclined to avoid the issue, to retreat to areas in which I am in control. I would spiral away from it, the red fabric making that lovely rippling noise through the air. I would spiral away and then climb into the stands and hail the hotdog salesman. I would play audience, watch the chaos wear itself out, and then approach it with a carrot and make it my friend.

Or at least, that's what I can visualize. Sometimes though, the bull catches that red fabric and tears me to the ground. That, or there's like forty bulls all running around at once. Sometimes succumbing to the chaos is unavoidable. It happens to everyone at one time or another, but just because it's a part of existence does NOT make it any easier.