Maira Kalman "Once again I walk across the country...In my head"
maira kalman/new york times

We really love Maira Kalman‘s picture of her worn, old-fashioned boots and it’s simple, insightful, refreshingly real-life annotation. It affirms something we practice many times daily: imagining, fantasizing, trying-on scenarios in our heads that we ultimately will never do because the reality is, well, something we don’t really want to deal with, or can’t deal with.  Sometimes we can’t get with the ‘reality sandwiches’ at hand, to coin Allen Ginsberg‘s brilliant phrase from a famous poem in his famous book of the same name.

We DON’T make all the ideas we have, but we DO do some of them. Sometimes the one’s we don’t do lead to outcomes or paths we don’t expect. Just being willing to try on ideas in our heads helps us figure out which ones we really want or need to do.

As we mull making something out of shipping pallets or a cool idea for painting a wall or imagine riding a bike like Danny McAskill, we embrace possibilities,’the adjacent possible’ that lives in every moment…

Check out Kalman’s And the Pursuit of Happiness here.

via The New York Times

Related posts: possibilities in everyday things (piano as 5+ instruments)
what happens if you start your day with a poem?
improvisation is a guerilla action
the possibilities of folded paper
the creative possibilities for being ‘on hold’ via christophe neimannx

If you’ve found illumination, joy, or inspiration in this post, please consider supporting Improvised Life. It only takes a minute to make a secure donation that helps pay our many costs. A little goes a long way towards helping Improvised Life continue to live ad-free in the world.

Support Improvised Life ♥

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *