Shape of a life

I was in Starbucks today, reading the paper. All the sections were neatly lined up as they usually are in newspapers. I scanned the first page, the second, and then flipped through quickly to other bits I was interested in seeing. Each section had its own shape, determined by the heading and the content within. Today was unusual for me because I bought the paper. Normally, I would check the headlines as they come through my e-mail and then go to anything that looks interesting or relevant to my writing. The shape of the news for me, is determined by what I ask my e-mail to filter in. When I look at a whole paper, however, the shape is different. Each section is still the same, but merely brushing past the sports section on my way to the arts might cause me to take a second look at a section I wouldn't normally go to. I certainly would not set up an e-mail alert for sports (unless the Olympics or Tour de France is on, and then its' a different story), but an item might catch my eye because of its association to something very relevant to me even though it's not on one of 'my' sections. How much do we miss when we determine the shape of our lives ahead of time? What connections are missed when we focus in on only what we are already interested in? Time is always an issue of course. We have to make judgements about what we want to hear about and what we don't. There is only so much information we can receive and process. But now and again, we should all consider buying the whole paper. James Burke (for those who grew up with British TV) was an expert at connecting. On his show he would meander through a labyrinth of seemingly disparate concepts, people, things, only to weave them together at the end into a web of mutual relevance that would leave me totally amazed week after week. This guy was the ultimate ontological thinker. The shape of his life was (and still is) huge. Unexpected wisdom is the most precious of all and often hits us when we are least expecting it. Flashes of insight and understanding strike us at odd moments, often when we are in a different shape to our usual space. Every day, I try to change the shape of my life just a bit. Picking up a journal instead of downloading an article, reading a perspective I know I won't like, or just sitting and watching to learn. As I aspire to ascend the spiral, it's the least I can do.