Old Faithful, the famous geyser in Yellowstone, once known as “Eternity’s Timepiece,” was due to erupt at 2:19pm. We arrived there (unaware of its schedule) at 2:35pm. Disappointed that we had missed the scheduled eruption of this very regular (about every 90 mins), magnificent phenomenon of nature we were surprised to see that there were still over 1,000 people there, waiting. I asked whether the eruption had taken place already. “No,” I was told, “Old Faithful is running late and no one knows exactly when it will next erupt!”
I was taken aback. Irritated. Impatient. How long would we need to stand around waiting? This is nature, not a municipal bus held up in traffic! What could be holding Old Faithful up? Imagine the sun not rising on time because it is “running late.” Just then, it erupted beautifully, and I took this shot.
I realized then that some natural events are algorithmically programmed but others occur somewhat spontaneously. They are caused by the synchronous collisions of a variety of forces. Geysers erupt when the right conditions of subterranean water, heat and pressure collide. These conditions sometimes defy scientific predictability.
Life is similar. A lot of our lives are and should be programmed so that we get stuff done and accomplish our goals. But if we over-program our lives, or the lives of our children, we block the opportunities for spontaneous, unpredictable collisions that produce magical moments and unforgettable memories.
I try to do something unprogrammed every day and expose myself to serendipitous possibility. I might take a random book off a shelf and open it anywhere to read a few pages, or listen to a random piece of music. Occasionally I stop by a coffee shop and greet a stranger with a comment that could potentially start a conversation. Every week we try to do something spontaneous, like taking a drive into the country without a predetermined destination or route. Sometimes I plan to go to our inter-city bus station and get onto a bus without knowing its destination! Every year we try to take at least one break that isn’t planned out in detail. It is important to sometimes wake up and say, “What shall we do today?”
I live a life in which punctuality is important. But sometimes, like Old Faithful, I run late because of a particular confluence of random events that led me on an unprogrammed serendipitous trail. Unlike Old Faithful though, when I am running late, I don’t always find thousands of people waiting for me to show up! Balancing the discipline of programming with the creativeness of randomness is the art of life itself.