Inviting the Unexpected

We shall not cease from exploration.  

And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time. –T.S. Eliot

I was raised on a small farm in the Mission Valley, Montana.  A small creek flowed through the valley that marked our ten acres of forested land, the terrain that was my backyard.  My two sisters and I would routinely adorn ourselves in princess dress-ups, and then set out to explore the “wild wilderness.”  This setting encouraged imaginations to run wild, resourcefulness to develop, and our sisterly bond to strengthen.  We allowed ourselves to encounter the unexpected and surprising, like sighting a spotted fawn or realizing that teepees are best built when fastened together before being raised.  Because our lives were not entirely planned or pre-consumed, space was open for creativity, discovery, and exploration.   

In Sherry Turkle’s Alone Together, she speaks of our current communications and technology culture, and its consuming attributes.  Provocative and compelling, her book stirred in me many realizations, ideas, and intentions.  This paper focuses on one in particular: how technology reduces the incredibly valuable act of exploration.  Often the greatest life lessons, most profound discoveries, best relationships, deepest conversations, and valuable character development come from the unplanned, unmediated, and unexpected occurrences.  Turkle states, on page fourteen:

“(Management consultants) say they used to talk to each other as they waited to give presentations or took taxis to the airport; now they spend that time doing e-mail.  Some tell me they are making better use of their “downtime,” but they argue without conviction.  The time they once used to talk as they waited for appointments or drove to the airport was never downtime. It was the time when far-flung global trams solidified relationship and refined ideas.”

This quote embodies the idea that there is value in unpurposed time; it is often these spaces that lend themselves to the best conversation, interaction, and imagination.  This past week I abstained from Facebook.  Originally I felt a bit isolated; the social media site connects me to my friends and family.  I now had blank spaces in my day.  Once purposed to networking, they were oddly empty.  It was tempting to fill them with a similar replacement, Pinterest, Twitter, Tumblr, etcetera.  Instead I chose to leave them open, and to see what naturally, or perhaps even fatefully, would fill them.  The results included: a spontaneous bike ride with my sister, laundry folded, experimentation with a stir-fry recipe, a phone call to my mother, and a conversation with a fellow student about the wonders of the outdoors.  I would have missed most, if not all, of these experiences had I been intentional not to “waste” time.  In my journal I noted, “It would seem that allowing ‘empty spaces’ in my life grants opportunities for the lovely and unexpected to fill it.” (pg. 6)  When all our downtime is filled with texting, online games, emailing, and networking, we do not leave ourselves open to involuntary beauty and value.  Additionally, we may also neglect our creative potential:     

“By far the number of new ideas occur during a state of reverie…It is a state of mind in which ideas and images are allowed to appear and take their course spontaneously…the creator need[s] to be able to be passive, to let things happen within the mind.” (pg. 272)

            Turkle continues to say that in our connected and highly digitalized life, these moments of stillness are “hard to come by.” (pg. 272)  When we are constantly plugged in, we allow no time for our minds to wander.  Oppositional to this is the argument that we can be highly productive when constantly devoting our minds to tasks, as seen through The Brain That Changes Itself.   This view is not entirely untrue; it is important to stimulate one’s mind.  Anytime we learn, including online, we are engaging our time and attention.  My purpose of this paper, as well as my new personal goal, is not to cease from focused mental engagement, but rather to allow times of “empty space,” to invite the unexpected.  To let our brains be free.   Although we feel the need to be efficient, the paradox is that often the best insights and ideas come during the mental reprieves.  Furthermore, Turkle references a study that linked the value of “downtime” to “maintain[ing] our ability to focus.” (pg. 167)

            My two sisters and I, the “three musketeers” as I named us, did more than just adventure in our woods.  We explored who we were, how we interacted with our environment, and our hopes and goals.  Nothing was off limits for our imaginations.  My three younger brothers now devote major portions of their free time to computer and Wii games.  Certainly their hand-eye coordination is improving, and I do sense camaraderie as they band together to defeat virtual enemies.  What I love more though, is when they build couch-cushion forts, go outside to craft bows from aspen branches, create robots from toilet-paper tubes, or experiment in the kitchen.  Poet, professor, and author Oliver Wendell Holmes said it well: “The human mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.”