August 10, 2007

An artist's quote

I came across this quote the other day at work. In essence it seems to be the antithesis of my personal desire for life in general. Though as of late I've taken a new stance.

I think it's sort of indecent to have things so worked out that they end up like you thought they should...you just have to expose yourself to more, and see what the consequences are.
-Robert Rauschenberg

I don't have things planned out to the most finite details in my life but I have a general idea of what I want out of it. There are definitely certain aspects i.e. people and places and events that I may fixate on. I ran into a friend at the beginning of summer who just got back from his mission and did have an incredibly detailed plan for his life. His Dad sat him down after his mission and had him read a book about planning the heck out of your college experience. Basically he had a projected forty year financial plan detailing when he could afford to buy a car, how much he would put into savings with each paycheck once he was an accountant. This marvelous minute by minute schedule also incorporated a future savings plan for his children's' college education funds and the like. What I loved was that at the end of this freak presentation he concluded by remarking that girls just didn't fit into his plan for school. Over the months he has informed me that he has managed to fit them into his schedule without allowing them, and I quote "to mess everything up." Oh good.

Now I respect this guy. He is a dang hard worker and unlike many of his male counterparts at BYU actually has a plan and is going to make it work. I am confident that he will make one lucky girl extremely happy. Despite all of this his plan seems to leave him quite robotic in the here and now.

At first I felt threatened and futile when he shared his plan with me, I now realize that I prefer my pseudo-plan to his concrete one. Life is all about living and experiencing as much as you possibly can. As a result of heightened drama (I detest using that word) in my personal life over the past year I have slowly and painfully come to the realization that if we plan to rigidly then we miss opportunities for growth. It is vital to be open to the possibility of change and to realize that there is someone else out there who has a plan for us and who knows infinitely more about what would benefit us overall.

So Mr. Rauschenberg I adopt your aforementioned quote as my new motto...at least for this week.

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