Ambiguity

“I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next.
Delicious Ambiguity.” 

- Gilda Radner

     For years I thought  that ambiguity was the sole propriety of language.  I considered a sentence, a passage, a poem, a story, anything with words that was unclear as ambiguous.  And that's where ambiguity stopped.  In 1989, Gilda Radner died of cancer and I discovered this quote.  That's when the door opened on ambiguity for  me.

     Initially, I didn't like thinking of life as ambiguous.  I wanted to know exactly what was going to happen, how exactly were things going to turn out.  I didn't like waiting for outcomes and, instead, I determined that whatever way I wanted things to go was the way they were going to go.  Big mistake.

     More recently, I have made room on the bench of life for ambiguity. Ambiguity is going to push its way in anyway so I might as well make room for it.  Specifically, this means that I don't assume to know exactly how things are going to turn out.  It means that I can be curious about the outcome of some situation rather than decide that I am in charge of everything and that the universe will obey my demands.  

     Making room for ambiguity certainly does make life more interesting and, yes, entertaining. 

I know what I painted but do you know what I painted?  Ambiguity in art!