Take On the Clean Slate

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Was it Einstein who said: Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results? Well, here we are sliding into the finish line of 2014 and already we’re dusting off our pencils and getting ready to make a list of resolutions for the new year. Who can blame us for wanting to improve, make life different, and stop with the same old mistakes?

First of all: a clean slate doesn’t always happen at the start of a new year. It can arise from dreadful circumstances that require a complete turn around of life—and the list of ways this can happen are legion. It’s hard to welcome the opportunity for change when a cloud is over your head—but it can happen, and can bring untold, unforeseen new chances for survival. And with survival maybe some creativity.

Secondly, a clean slate can come around when a road is closed and you’re forced to follow the detour signs. This happened to me today, and I got to discover new vistas, houses, hills, scenery and a weird kind of shop with old cars and pin ball machines that I wasn’t comfortable to visit on my own.

And this got me to thinking about a third thing: curiosity. It’s going to be the being curious about everything from ‘what’s under that rock?’ to ‘what’s on the other side of that hill/tree/bush’ to ‘I wonder what lizards eat’ that will get us out of our ruts and out into the world of discovery. And that curiosity will help dissipate our doubts about going down dark passages into the unknown, highways that lead to blank slates.

It all comes down to attitude, man. It’s curiosity that’s going to get me out of my deep groove of complacency and comfort—to have the energy to clean that crusty slate and be bold enough to visit a shop with old cars and pinball machines.

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