What’s better uncertainty or certain doom?

I ask because as people both male and female approach 30, their early thirties and their mid-thirties it seems in some way many of us start to do things so that we will have some certainty about our future. We don’t want it to be “too late” for whatever we think we are running out of time to do. So people tend to lock down mates, careers, homes, exercise routines, nutrition plans and everything at a rapidly increasing rate due to the proverbial pressure. And most times these are well thought out decisions. Then there are the other times.

It made me wonder if some people would just rather be certain than uncertain. Regardless of what or who we signed up for whether it be an expensive gym membership that we won’t really use or spouses and potential kids that we don’t really want. Even if that certainty is that you will probably certainly be displeased. And the joke is that there is no real such thing as certainty. You can be certain you will have a home but you can’t be certain that the town you choose with the awesome school districts and close proximity to public transportation won’t be swallowed up by a ginourmous earthquake/tsunami tag team. You can be certain you have a career plan but you can’t be certain your field won’t be eliminated due to technological innovation like the people who used to own video stores or actually repair TVs and VCRs. You can be certain you got married but you can’t be certain that your spouse won’t join a cult that will lure him/her away from you and alter their current values and beliefs and then you are just living with a stranger who drinks all kinds of Kool Aid and stops eating chicken. Obviously I’m slightly exaggerating but I think you get my point. Implied certainty at what cost? Obviously no one can predict the future. But I guess we should try to make some educated hypothesis. They may not be too far off and maybe we can avoid some of the unpleasant surprises.

Either way our not so certain certainties come back to bite us, right on the ass while our pants are down and we aren’t looking because we were texting or planning our awesomely clear and certain futures.