The Virtue of Vagueness

Pablo Picasso once said, "You have to have an idea of what your are going to do, but it should be a vague idea." *  It took me a moment or two to figure out what he meant.  Then it hit me.  You need to have an idea of what you want to do.  Any idea will do.  But that is where it should end.  No, I don't mean don't pursue your dreams.  Have the dream.  Just don't limit the outcome.  Sometimes we think we know what we are going to do.  We get bogged down in the details.  We outline.  We limit the Universe.  We put limits on God.  We place our imagination in a container from which it cannot escape.  

Vague is good.  General is appropriate.  A map helps, but there may be reasons not to follow the route first drawn out.  Washed out bridges, traffic congestion, roadside robbers.  Detours are not always bad.  I have seen some pretty interesting places by just getting lost a bit on my way.  And I always think to myself, "Self, if you had not made that turn back there, you never would have seen this."  

Yep, I think Picasso nailed it.  I want to create.  I want to write and entertain.  Most of the time I sit down to my computer, pull up the old blog here, and the words just come out. I have a vague idea of what I am going to say.  I have a faint vision of the words I will use.  But usually I just start writing.  And the words string themselves along in a fashion that, maybe even just occaisionally, say something amazing.

When the spirit moves, follow.  Not much more to say about that.  I have an idea of what I am going to do now; but it is a vague one.

*Kahnweiler, Juan Gris: sa vie, son oeuvre, ses ecrits, 1946, p. 83