The Joy of not Knowing

Recently I made a bench for a new upscale house and was allowed to take a quick tour when I delivered the bench. Being somewhat disillusioned by the typical new large, upscale house, I was pleasantly surprised by the intimacy I felt walking around. I did not know that there were such things out there

In fact I was so affected by the intimacy that I actually underestimated the size of the house by about half when trying to describe it to someone. And though there are certainly things about the house I may have not have liked, I found enjoyment in being presented with something that made me think of the positives.

I think of the typical responses that I hear, and often mumble myself, when people are casting a critiquing eye on something whether it is design or art or music or what have you. Our first observations seems always to highlight the deficiencies and the maybe pepper it with some “but I do like this little part…” I mean, I’ll admit that it’s an easy fallback to play Monday Morining Quarterback and point out all the things I would have done differently after the fact (we call that doublebagging, after an old Bret Favre commercial). Not to say that those out there who “love” everything are doing us any favors either. I suppose it’s that balanced well thought out critique that I enjoy so much, which, granted, is much easier to do in writing than in casual conversation.

It’s hard to find that balance between being the annoying doublebagger and perhaps the more annoying Polyanna. The whole idea kind of ties in to my recent mantra to myself “It’s easy to find reasons not to do something but a little more challenging to find the reasons to do something.” I don’t know that  the mantra is working yet. Perhaps becuse it all seems like it might devolve into an analyzation of a pros and cons list, which is not at all what I had in mind, not at all.

I am already rebelling against my own mantra. I think it’s becasue it seems too much like a “plan.” I’m not really a plan person but more of an “I have an unverbalized sense that certain named and unnamed things must occur in order for things to move forward” kind of person. The idea of verbalizing the plan seems like too much of a commitment to an absolute of what needs to occur and I am certainly not an absolute kind of guy.

I think it is because it is the gray areas that make things interesting, knowing that you don’t know can be as exhilirating as knowing that you do. I mean, who knows all the things you might not know today. The list is quite endless.

This entry was posted on 17. June 2008 at 08:54 and is filed under Permusations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.