Member-only story
Should We Expect Nothing?
Why not expect everything instead?
We cannot expect nothing. Expectations are always there as part of the human condition. It is how we perceive the world. If we didn’t predict how our surroundings might behave, we would always have to wander and could never aim at anything. We can argue that we wouldn’t be lost, for we wouldn’t have had a destination, to begin with, but we wouldn’t be heading anywhere. Fish in a fishbowl.
Some doctrines tell us we should learn not to expect, and their logic is sound: most of our problems come from the dissonance between expectations and reality. If we plan based on the wrong forecast, we will be frustrated. Alas, not planning at all is as good a solution to frustration as felling trees is to wildfire prevention. It is probable that the problem lies with our perception and assessment of the world, but these are areas where improvement demands much hard work and even more discipline.
Naturally, it is wise to control one’s expectations. Expecting nothing would mean independence from this highly distorting filter of reality. However, expectations are also how we navigate the world, how we make sense of it, how we predict what will happen next and how best to adapt to it or influence the situation. Expecting nothing is wishing to limit our memory to the last three seconds in hopes we will forget…