Delicious Ambiguity

From A Fancy Word for Simple Jan 1, 2007

I wanted a perfect ending. . . Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity.

-Gilda Radner

Today is filled with “delicious ambiguity” as all of 2007 sits in the future. How do you approach a new year? What are your hopes, dreams, and plans for the year? What do you want to leave behind about last year?

I actually refrain from making any resolutions, goals, or plans per se for the new year. I am constantly taking stock of where I'm at, where I'm going, and where I've been. For many years, my life revolved around very tangible goals, and I am enjoying the freedom to abandon that process. I delight in the "ambiguity," despite the feedback given me by a supervisor in 1997. Anytime I and my co-workers would ask for clarification, she'd accuse us of having difficulty handling ambiguity. As a result, "ambiguity" has become a dirty word for me. I love how open-ended life is, a highway stretching before me, rich in possibilities. As a possibly strange aside, that is one of the quotes from Terminator 2 that I enjoyed so much, how Sarah Connor realizes that for the first time in a long time, the future feels as though it holds hope for her, because she is no longer tied to her fate. I like the idea of being the master of my own destiny ... and without the ability to embrace ambiguity, I cannot do that.