Since outcomes are always unpredictable, I don't seek or expect control.

I treat life more like a sailor might treat a voyage, in that I have moderate goals that I navigate towards always ready and willing to change direction as the situation and my skills require. In this manner I learn.

Amen Rich. Amen.

I treat life more like a sailor — Rich

In this manner I learn — Rich

Until the damn boat sinks, then we're done.

Maybe not.

So, is there some golden mean of 'control' towards which we ought to strive towards? — Posty McPostface

One thing an individual can do is save some money--enough to get by on, living cheaply, for 6 months. Let's say that one can live cheaply for $2000 a month. Save up $12,000. If you have enough money to live on (cheaply) for 6 months, you will be able to afford getting fired from a job. If you get fired, you can collect unemployment for 6 months -- and still have another 6 months left.

If you have $12,000 in the bank (hell, if you have $5,000 in the bank) you can weather minor emergencies. Major emergencies -- no, but then, if they are major enough, nobody can weather them without big problems.

If you have enough to live cheaply for 6 months, you can afford to work on and off to keep from going broke too quickly. $12,000 gives you a significant amount of control, and freedom. As much less than $2000 a month that you can live on, the less you have to save.

How do you save 12,000 a month? You live cheaply and save as large a percentage of your income as you can manage. You can have bad habits and minor vices, but they have to be inexpensive. You take public transit instead of buying a car. You live in a little apartment instead of a nice big one. You wear your clothes out. You don't travel, except by hitchhiking, staying with friends or tricks, or the sleaziest of hotels.

Doesn't this take all the joy out of life? Not really. For one thing, this is temporary. It's a short term project to save enough to allow you to take risks with employment. Having college debt, a mortgage, credit card debt, and expensive vices means YOU HAVE TO KEEP WORKING UNTIL YOU DIE. You can't stop, because a swarm of debt collecting vultures is always circling overhead, waiting for a missed payment.

Maybe not. There might be life after death or maybe you snagged a life boat before your ship sank. Or maybe your ship was driven into the rocks of grim reality by the insistent waves of misfortune, but you were close enough to shore to wade to safety. And maybe the island you were fortunate enough to wade ashore was fruitful, pleasant, and unoccupied except by another castaway who happens to be quite voluptuous or a stud, whichever you prefer. And you lived happily ever after.

Or maybe you inhaled water, sank, lost consciousness and died, and discovered there was no second act. Sic transit gloria Rich.

There is enough evidence that memory persists.