Uncontrol the Controllable – The Chardonnay Effect

“Control the controllable”, I read one day on a blog (about how to avoid stress, I think). This sounded like a generalization of Marcus Aurelius‘s quote :

“You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”

…and I liked it. Control the controllable (which is your mind). Power and concision of English language!

Seneca says something like :

“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality”

…which is complementary, right? What is uncontrollable, now, though?

MMmhhhh. Epictetus can help us here :

“Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.”

(I bolded the bold). It seems that philosophers from Antiquity had some thinkings about life, right? “As it happens” (Amor fati, etc).

Love what happens…

My article is about : what if, for a moment,  I do not want to control what I could control. Uncontrol the controllable. “Make the best use of what is in your power” can then become for me… to smile and listen to propositions of life.

I call it the Chardonnay effect.

Chardonnay is a French white wine. It seems to have a strange effect : I forget “rules and regulations”, I have less desires to control what I can control. I open some doors and paths, just to see. Don’t drink too much, though!

Thanks to some French Magic, I seem to be more able to enjoy the moment, extend possibilities, be in place, and realize that life is too short to CONTROL EVERYTHING.

Well, Chardonnay (and okey, other wines too, probably, LOL) have the capacity to make me decide to let go, to dance. With the ability – I hope – to recontrol if necessary, right?

Royksöpp, in this song, says the dangers of uncontrolling this way, though :

I still don’t know just what I’ve done
I don’t remember anymore what I used to be

OK, but what side doesn’t remember the other one? Is there a danger to begin to love the uncontrol? Is there a conflict between guts and reason? What kind of dance is it, then, between Face A and B, forest and trees, pleasure and rules, opening doors and lukewarm but necessary important security behind closed ones? Jekyll and Hyde? What kind of door is it, between the two?

Don’t drink, stay in control. Voilà.

Cheers! A la bonne vôtre !

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