Improvisation and Reflection

“Men and women confronting change are never fully prepared for the demands of the moment, but they are strengthened to meet uncertainty if they can claim a history of improvisation and a habit of reflection.”
Mary Catherine Bateson

Mary Catherine Bateson is an anthropologist and writer who also happens to be the daughter of the famous anthropologist Margaret Mead and her third husband, fellow anthropologist Gregory Bateson. One can only imagine the kind of dinner conversations she may have been involved in or at least heard as she grew up. She has been described as one of the “greatest minds” of the twenty-first century. In her writing and throughout her life she has cultivated an interest in how we “compose” our lives. For me this quotation seems to sum up her thinking. I have decided to “adopt” it as my theme for the next while.

What is improvisation as it applies to the composing of our lives in all their aspects? How might we develop a habit of reflection? Do these activities really prepare us better for uncertainty and change?

As a way into this let me quote a little further from Mary Catherine and then propose a simple exercise/experiment.

In her book Peripheral Visions she says:

“Much of modern life is organized to avoid the awareness of the fine threads of novelty connecting learned behaviours with acknowledged spontaneity. We are largely unaware of speaking, as we all do, sentences never spoken before, unaware of choreographing the acts of dressing and sitting and entering a room as depictions of self, of resculpting memory into an appropriate past.”

During the next week or so try to notice these “fine threads of novelty”. Spend some time each day writing down the things you said or the actions you took that were, even the slightest bit, “out of the ordinary” for you. Do nothing more – simply pay attention to the uniqueness that is contained in the living of your life: in your work, in your play and especially in the conversations that are so central to all you do.

NOTE:
What has “struck” me as I write this is how tricky it feels for me to say how to reflect on something and how impossible it is for me to suggest what to pay attention to or be looking out for. I went looking for some descriptions of what to do, how to go about this, but everything I found “felt” artificial and way too prescriptive. This feels more and more to me like something that it is worth having some conversations about. I’ll keep you posted!