Not Expecting Except ..Sometimes

Well this WAS going to be a word of the day, but it ended up turning into a post cause I had so many thoughts on it. Amazing how one word can do that: have SUCH a strong effect. What's funny is that, by switching this to a post I'm doing exactly what I'm talking about. What are the CHANCES! (you'll understand how funny this is by the end of this post)

Anyways, the word I got today was...Minimalist. My initial thoughts of the word are probably different then how many might think of it, but rather than thinking of all the definitions of this word, I want to focus on my own initial thoughts that come to mind when I read or hear this particular word.

First off I immediately think of John Cage, a minimalist composer. Cage is perhaps best known for his 1952 composition, or masterpiece, 4'33. This piece is preformed in the deliberate absence of sound. Literally. I'm not joking. The musicians that preform this piece sit on stage hold there instruments and look at the blank score. After a certain amount of time, they all turn the page to reveal another blank score. Genius. I'm sorry...but it really is. Now if anyone plays 4'33 they have to credit Cage. You can't just not play because he actually "wrote" the music. 

Cage was extremely well known for his radical innovations of music, manifest by this piece. But he really was a minimalist. Cage believed that you didn't need much to channel in the effects of music. Something that I now connect with the word minimalist, besides Cage, is the idea of chance. Cage really believed in chance music. The point of many of his compositions were that they would never be preformed the same. That every time someone played it, it would change according to chance. He would've loved watching someone stand up and randomly start singing during the middle of one of his pieces. 

Chance. Okay...so far I'm lovin this. The less we have or do, the more we try to be a "minimalist" the more we leave up to chance. Cool right?? But really. It's so true. 

I'm a really organized person, but not so much that if one thing goes off from the original plan I have a conniption or anything. Yet, as Cage did, if you leave almost all to chance...leave everything unorganized you'll have no consistency. You'll move with whatever the universe decides to throw at you. The trick is finding a balance, a equilibrium where you have parts of your life under control. Planned and organized to the dot, but you have other parts of your life that are open to interpretation. Unexplored waters, untouched by such planning. Then when something in life waivers just slightly, it's okay. You know everything will work out because it's just chance right? 

I'm really excited for this concept. I've never really thought about the idea of minimalism and chance as such....actually I never have thought much about them, or what they really mean at all. But what a great thought. Finding a balance of organization and acceptance of life as it takes you places you never thought you'd go. Find your balance and accept it. Cherish the times that go according to plan along with the times times that take a turn of events. Love it all, live it all, and enjoy it all to the dot. dot. . . .. . ... .