A Little Bit of Chaos (and Idiocy)

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By: leelefever on September 30, 2005 - 11:42am

Sachi and I were married a little over a year ago.  Not unlike this trip, it was event that required a lot of planning. We heard a lot of advice from people and a piece that really stuck with us has to do with expectations of perfection.  For your wedding day, you want things to go perfectly- and it’s an impossible goal.

 

In the weeks before the wedding, we had a mantra that helped us set expectations.  It was “A little bit of chaos”.  When looking forward to the event, we learned to expect and even embrace a little bit of chaos.  This allowed us to let go – Que sera sera!

 

In looking forward to this next adventure, again, I think “a little bit of chaos” is an appropriate mantra. What’s different about this event is that chaos is absolutely unavoidable.  But, our reaction to it is not. We want to learn to expect the chaos of unfamiliar languages, people, and foods and work through it with smiles on our faces.

 

Rolf Potts pointed me to a quote from an interview with Anthony Bourdain that hit home…

 

“[He] praises "bullshit-free" destinations like Glasgow, and expresses an intention to travel "with an open mind, an empty stomach, and a willingness to take at face value whatever was offered" from his hosts. "I hope that by leaving myself open to misadventure, disaster, and the happy accident," he says, "good things will happen. I'm not afraid to look like an idiot." 

 

-Anthony Bourdain

Heh.  Looking like an idiot is unavoidable too.  Maybe our mantra should be “A little bit of chaos and idiocy”.