How to live well in uncertain times

A psychologist friend is the head of the counselling services at one of the most prestigious universities in the country. Over the years we’ve often spoken about how, when you’re young, as most students are, you desperately want to know what is going to happen next. He’s often faced with young people begging him to tell them that he knows how to deal with uncertainty. But he doesn’t. In fact his standard response is, with a big, empathetic smile on his face, to say “Life is full of surprises, and most of them are bloody awful!”

So far, this year has been the very definition of