Calliope pondered the abstract. “Shark?”
Thalia squinted. “I un-derrr-stand your guess — but noooooo! Try again! Think bigger! Hiiiiiiiii-er!”
Nia’s patience for guessing games was scant. “Airplane wing.”
“Are we going… somewhere?” Cal’s voice lilted in rhythm with her question.
“We’re always going somewhere.” Nia cleared her throat. “The real question is — are we — upgrading ourselves for the next leap.”
Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how… The artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark.
~ Agnes De Mille
Thought provoking. Cal’s “guess-tation period” is a good bit faster than mine on pondering the painting. 🤔 Yet my not knowing “the answer” seems to echo Agnes De Mille’s words. Just like your ever evolving skill set with painting and drawing.
“Leaps in the dark” brings to mind Castaneda’s “Gait of Power.” In some instances running at full speed, in total darkness, with faith that no harm would come in doing so. De Mille’s career in dance, choreography, and directing really followed a trajectory of “leaps in the dark.” (I peeked at her bio)
Effort after effort by De Mille brought her critical acclaim but a lack of financial success. What did she do? Kept leaping. 😁 With Rogers and Hammerstein II, she used her choreography to explore the unconscious lives of the performers!
That aside, not unusual for how I often reply or examine my reactions, helped me flesh out the message of your post today. (Or at least invent an explanation. 😬)
Just as an element of ambiguity occurred in the painting, your words delivered some as well. From Cal’s “Are we going somewhere?” to Nia’s “...upgrading ourselves for the next leap?”
I can see the ballerina leap into the air, almost weightless. In the spotlight.
Card: “I often daydream that my life is just as it is now… only I have well-behaved hair and I live in Paris.” 😁
(Not sure I'd want to have hair again. Easier to comb my hair with a washcloth, for one thing. Plus after all these years I start feeling nervous if I'm outside for more than a couple minutes without a hat.)
I hope the passport process has speeded up! So many people were applying in 2021/2022 (and the department had not gotten staffed back up again) that delays of months were not unheard of. Naw, I'm sure it's all fixed now! 😉