Thursday, January 2, 2025
Nobody likes guesswork, so we try to take it out. We like knowing the details, and we like making sure everything is prepared and readied for. But I’d like to argue that planning is guessing and guessing is planning. There is no difference. Plans are best guesses, and the rest remains open to the mystique of maybe.
I’m surprised at how many times we get it on the nose – we make it on time, it turns out exactly as we expected, and we wiggle out of worst-case scenarios. We foil the future, repeatedly. But the guesswork lurks in the shadows as we become confident. Death lurks in the shadows and we forget. Failure and disaster lurk in the shadows, and we forget. But that’s part of the build up, I suppose. The guesswork becomes shadowy-er. Then all hell breaks loose – gotcha. How sinister!
You can’t take out the guesswork. Surprise and wonder live with us in the permanency of now. “I can’t say that I was surprised.” What funny language this is! Sure you can say you were surprised. You’re just pretending that you knew all along. “I can’t believe it.” What funny language this is! Why can’t you believe it?
Taking the guesswork out of the future is dicey. Guesswork is a shadowy pretense that seems to bite us in the ass from time to time. That’s all part of the mystique though. Take out the guesswork, and you take out the mystique. As if you can remove the mystique from life! Things change. The future is iffy and strangely predictable. Every yes and no, every plan, every commitment, and every dream implies a maybe. Don’t forget the mystique.