The Unexpected

Despite calendars and clocks and all the mental gymnastics we use to control life and time, surprises are at the heart of existence.  This may seem like a truism, but if so, it is one of those truths we often avoid in our desire for stability and the quelling of anxiety.  Our expectations, a form of knowledge based on the past, are efforts to avoid pain and the joy of the new.  They are often scarecrows to frighten away reality, as Ortega y Gassett put it.  Habits of mind meant to forget that li...