knowing enough

No one knows enough to be a pessimist. -- Wayne Dyer

I've been holding this quote in my inbox since early August - letting it percolate until I figured out what exactly I thought about it. When I first read it, I gloated confidently from my position of firmly entrenched optimism: "Oh, yes. So true."

Until today, when it occurred to me that if this statement is accurate, then it is only fair to also say that no one knows enough to be an optimist, either.

Finally I tried this on for size, and it seemed to fit: No one knows enough to formulate accurate conclusions about what anything means or how anything will turn out.

Which lands me firmly back in the Yes Or No In The Moment camp once again. That gut feeling -- uh-huh or nuh-uh -- is all that seems to remain when I strip away my inaccurate predictions and my unfounded trust in the certainty of cause and effect.

So I wonder why it is so difficult for me to act on my gut instincts at times. Why do I talk myself out of following my inner guidance? Why do I tend to place more faith in an intellectual conclusion based on insufficient data than on my intuition, which taps directly into a far larger pool of information than my conscious mind can access? Strange.

As I write this, a new angle of approach occurs to me. Maybe I can predict some things with more certainty than others -- the things I have creative control over. So it's probably fairly safe to say that whatever happens, I will handle it, will eventually get over it, and this too shall pass.

It's probably safe to say that my feelings will rise and/or fall and eventually settle down. Hmmm, I think this must be one of the advantages of having lived a handful of decades. I have lots of 'getting over it' under my belt. I've seen lots of trauma and drama and bliss come and go, and I'm still here.

Maybe predictions were necessary crutches when I did not yet have the life experiences that taught me I could rely on my ability to handle situations as they arose. I predicted so I could prepare. Not such a bad strategy, really. Just not as helpful or necessary as it used to be.