ARE YOU CONCERNED about a bodily system behaving badly? Maybe about the way an organization is being governed? Or, how a country's economy or healthcare system is evolving? Might these queries sum to one root question—Who's in control here?
Recently, editor colleagues and I met with a globally diverse group of summer interns. Among the issues they raised: they and their peers don't feel they have much control over their futures. Turbulent economic and social conditions can create a lot of unknowns, especially for those poised to enter the job market. In suggesting a topic for an issue of the Christian Science Sentinel, one intern said, "How about 'Fear of having the bottom drop out after graduation'?"
Point bluntly made. Yet that can happen well after graduation, too, as when whole industries contract and valued employees find themselves suddenly out of work. Or when someone bails out on a relationship that looked lasting. Who, or what, is in control there? Are we like that symbol-laden floating feather in the movie Forrest Gump—like characters drifting along a life-string of disparate events beyond our control?
