Out Of Control

U2 LYRICS

I had the feeling it was out of control…

I think we deceive ourselves most of the time thinking that we have more control in this life than we really do.  We can try to make plans for our lives based on what we think may or may not happen but in the end, something out of left field could always make us adjust.  We might have more control as adults than we did as children, but I think if I studied the data then I would find that delta negligible.

I cannot control what my kids will like or not like.  We just gave up (ok I gave up) on my son and his piano lessons.  The wife wants both our son and daughter to enjoy and excel at music.  The son, while he likes music, just does not have it in him to put in the time to be good at an instrument.  We tried guitar for a while and then piano for a year.  Continued threats could not make him practice the mandated 20 minutes per day.  We started to charge him $1 for every day he missed.  He owed us $7 for a 2 week period before we upped it to $2 per day (the weekly cost of the lessons divided by the number of days per week that we asked him to practice).  That was what it took but in the end his heart was not in it.  It was out of our control.

We sat up late last night (all of us) in our room waiting for some potentially bad storms to pass over.  All out of our control.  We could only listen to the radio and watch the big red blob come toward our city on the radar screen.  We are all a little tired this morning because of this.  Nothing we can do about it but adjust and move on.

I know my life is almost void of troubles especially when compared to others.  A close family member dies or someone loses their job in a family that we know but for the most part we do not have any struggles (other than the recent fights over piano practice mandates).  We are very fortunate and I think in my heart that I somehow take credit for it.  I know that is not true but still I know that is how I think.  That somehow the amount of control I have it within my control.  This is irony squared.  My share of suffering is coming eventually I am sure.

This song (I am told) was written on Bono’s 18th birthday about becoming an adult and realizing that you have no more control than yesterday (when you were 17).  Everyone was excited for him and he was pondering his helplessness, how powerless he was truly to cause or stop anything from happening in his life.

One day I’ll die, the choice will not be mine…

Awesome lyrics.

Jon