Version control can be a bear. It's big, loud, and often presents itself between you and your goals. If you wander deep in the forest, you can happen suddenly upon a cave of several bears. Git, Mercurial, Bazaar, Darcs, Subversion, even old papa bear CVS. Each of these may take a different, intimidating form. Fortunately, they're all averse to the same bell of clarity.
You can't outrun a bear, but you can stand up to it. You can keep your intentions clear in commit messages, steer everyone away from confusion. You can drop signposts to warn other hikers along the commit path. Version control systems give you the tools to reach your goals, you just need to learn to use them.
Let's learn some commit style (and mix more metaphors)!