Untamed to the end?

We had dragged our husbands to the movie theater to watch the remake of the movie “Titanic” with Leanardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. We were sitting there with great anticipation. The lights went out and right then, in that moment of silence a guy said loud, “Oh boy, I can’t wait to see how it ends.” 

Such a short, cynical remark caused an uproar of laughter in the movie theater. Some of us tried to hold it back, but at the end, we were all laughing, most of all the men who didn’t want to see the movie in the first place. Needless to say, it went on throughout the whole movie; more witty comments and remarks were made. This epic, action-packed romance movie had been turned into a comedy with just one sentence.

That could only happen because we all had known how the movie would end. If you think about it, predictability often leads to the most boring work. An artist should create a piece of art from the heart, give people what they at least expect.

We all try so hard to fit in when we start our professional careers. We try to be invisible in a crowd of gray and black suits. While not standing out might be good advice when we start, we should let go of it later on.

What is so bad about standing out? What is so terrible about being unpredictable? What are we afraid of?

“We live in a society and a culture and an economic model that tries to make everything look right. Look at computers. Why are they all putty-colored or off-fucking-white? You make something off-white or beige because you are afraid to use any other color – because you don’t want to offend anybody. But by definition, when you make something no one hates, no one loves it. So I am interested in imperfections, quirkiness, insanity, unpredictability. That’s what we really pay attention to anyway. We don’t talk about planes flying; we talk about them crashing.” Tibor Kalman

 

I don’t want to be predictable, I don’t want to be tamed. I want to be me to the day I die. Loyal, trustworthy and reliable but also unpredictable, especially in my work.

 

Unpredictable

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