The unexpected

Thursday morning as I was making my way to the front room to open the blinds for the day, I heard a noise that I could not identify. I have to admit to being a little bit of a compulsion when it comes to noises; it drives me crazy not to be able to identify where a particular noise is coming from. I went through my mental list of noise sources and still couldn't figure out the noise, so went to the window to see what was going on (and open the blinds, as I mentioned earlier.) You can imagine my astonishment to see the semi-truck in the street; while it perfectly explained the noise (the engine was running) I never would have guessed the source of the noise if I hadn't opened the blinds.

The truck was making a deliver of sod to one of the neighbors. What you can't see in the picture is the small dog that was on top of the truck bed, running back and forth. Another unexpected element that put an odd twist on the morning.

I've been thinking about this experience with the unexpected this week. There is the common aphorism "Expect the unexpected", but I find this problematic. While the sphere of expected is naturally a limited number, the sphere of the unexpected is by definition limitless. I suppose you could argue that expecting the unexpected is a state of being rather than a programed response, but if that is the case, then there has to be a better way to phrase the advice.

That made me think of a phrase I picked up from Leonard Pitts, Jr., a columnist for the Miami Herald introduced to me by a friend after the events of September 11, 2001. In a speech in Philadelphia in February 2002, Pitts talks about a "failure of imagination" in connection with the September 11 attacks. I think the idea of "failure of imagination" is less limited than "expect the unexpected," but it is still phrased in a negative way, which isn't really something I want to inscribe on my walls.

Maybe the better personal goal is to "enlarge my imagination." Life is often a delicate balance between making plans and accepting the road before us. Our opportunity is to make the best of the life we have, which can mean giving up the plans we have made for a new route, sometimes at very short notice. For me, those adjustments are easier when my imagination is open wide to a variety of possibilities. When I choose to see through imagination-colored glasses, rather than staring only at my incomplete road map, I am happier. And I have a sod truck with a cheerful puppy on a random morning to thank for that insight.