I have just got a keyboard, and spent several days last week making weird noises on it, and writing embryonic songs. It was great fun, and in some ways my lack of knowledge - such as what notes are in which key and what the (many!) knobs do - meant that I was more able to experiment and be intuitive. Sooner or later of course, my desire to make 'music' - something that is repeatably nice - and to use the full capability of the equipment will lead me to learn some rules. The trick will be to re-find the freedom of “not knowing” once I get to the other side…..
In many contexts, we need to know enough about rules, to have enough structure, to really enable us to be free.
This is often a theme in descriptions of the creative arts - such as jazz music, abstract painting and poetry - in which there is a sense of freedom built on a clear framework and great technique.
It is certainly true in my coaching and facilitation work; clients and I need a certain amount of structure - some contract about how we will work - in order to forget about it and really be in the moment. In this place of not knowing, we might find a deeper truth.
Oliver Wendell Holmes famously said “I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity.”
Me too…..
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