Control and Comfort

Death is one of those things that effects everyone. It happens eventually...you can't stop it...it is inevitable. The fact that it comes and visits everyone scares everyone. No one lives forever. Death is an eventuality that everyone needs to plan for because it will come.

Death is a frightening prospect to many people. Some don't think about it because its easier that way. But the thoughts come across every now and then. It's only natural. The inevitability is the most frightening part of death. You know it's coming, there's no way to avoid it. It's scary. We always like to think that we have some manner of control over our lives. The control is comforting, it makes us feel better about things if we know the outcome. But there are some things that we just can't control and we have no way of controlling. Those are what frighten us the most. The monster under the bed...we don't know what it is, we can't control it...it scares us. The boogeyman is an unknown entity, unknown and potentially uncontrollable, so it becomes scary. Car wrecks...you LOSE control, car goes careening, scary prospect.

We, as humans, equate control with comfort. Our lives are more comfortable if we know what's coming and what to expect, right? Loss of control is when fear comes in. This is shown to us throughout history. Countries lose their leaders, there is no control, chaos reigns and people get scared. They get so scared and so wanting of control that they give up almost everything in order to get control back. In order to get their comfort back. But then this begs the question...is control always good?

Think about a communist country. Everything is controlled by the state (government), everything is provided, people are comfortable. But are they? They get everything they need, but what about what they want? How comfortable are they if they ONLY have what they need? There is always that desire for more, the want to own things and stuff that leads to a lack of comfort in a controlling society. So can control and comfort really be equal?

And so we go.