Absolutely certain about doubt

In the mailbox this Sunday morning . . .

Today in 1582 William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway married. We know only a little about their lives.

. . . in our longing for certainty we keep propping ourselves up from the elemental wobbliness of life on the crutch of opinion. Few things are more seductive to us than a ready opinion, and we brandish few things more flagrantly as we move through the world, slicing through its fundamental uncertainty with our insecure certitudes. The trouble with opinion is that it instantly islands us in the stream of life, cutting off its subject — and us along with it — from the interconnected totality of deep truth. – Maria Popova

We absolutely must leave room for doubt or there is no progress and there is no learning. There is no learning without having to pose a question. And a question requires doubt. People search for certainty. But there is no certainty. . . . You only think you know . . . and most of your actions are based on incomplete knowledge . . . It is possible to live and not know. . .In order to make progress, one must leave the door to the unknown ajar – Richard Feynman (often cited by Maria Popova in her Marginalian)

Our wishes and our actions are, all too frequently, not in synch. Nevertheless, we all have access to a fundamental intelligence that can help to solve our problems rather than making them worse. – Pema Chödrön