Imagine wasting all that perfectly good anger on paranoid fantasies. Not since Emily Litella got upset about "Soviet jewelry" has there been such a waste of anger. You will notice a certain theme to these Emily Litella Moments. Behind them all is a touching faith that someone, somewhere is actually in charge of what's happening - a proposition I beg leave to doubt.
We are all lone souls. It pays to know humility, lest the delusion of control, of mastery, overwhelms. And, indeed, we seem a species prone to that delusion, again and ever again." ~Fiddler, pg. 558
We misjudge risk if we feel we have some control over it, even if it's an illusory sense of control.
We think we can control life by controlling our immediate circumstances. But we can't!
Just because you're into control doesn't mean you're in control.
The pathology is to want control, not that you ever get it, because of course you never do.
We are not actually in charge of life, yet behave as if we are the masters of our own destiny. The realization of this fact is quite a hard one. The ridiculousness of our pomposity and presumption can only result in anger or humor.
Eating was my only way of controlling my life, or so I thought. When you are addicted or suffering from a mental illness, you think you're in complete control. But the opposite is true. You are, in fact, completely out of control.
Dieting fooled you into thinking you could control your life.
We are most deeply asleep at the switch when we fancy we control any switches at all.
Sometimes you want to have a very productive Saturday to feel that you are in control of your life, which of course you are not.
I am afraid we are little better than straws upon the water; we may flatter ourselves that we swim, when the current carries us along.
We humans are born egocentric. The sky thunders and children believe that God is mad at them for something they've done - parents divorce and children believe it's their fault for not being good enough. Growing up means putting aside our egocentricity for truth. Still, some people cling to this childish mind-set. As painful as their self-flagellation may be, they'd rather believe their crises are their fault so they can believe they have control. In doing so they make fools and false gods of themselves.
