Perhaps in the unexpected
Okay, last night I dreamed I was on Dancing with the Stars. They were spraying me with a fake tan, and I was wearing a glittery light green dress and everything. Considering my obsession with Hollywood, you'd think this was standard dream-fare for me. But nope. I rarely dream the things I want to dream. I dream about old high school acquaintances and being yelled at in church and snakes. (The last of which I've heard foretells a sudden influx of money, but I have this dream a lot, and I've yet to see the dough). But anyway, I know exactly why I dreamed the dancing dream last night. Carrie Ann Inaba.
On the show last night, she said to Ty the Cowboy that he was proof that with hard work and determination you can go places you never dreamed (*updated - I checked the quote on ABC's handy dandy online viewing). And it zinged me because it reminded me of the Beth Patillo quote I found the other day. It's found in JANE AUSTEN RUINED MY LIFE. The heroine has just found out something Jane Austen may have done that seemed out of character from what we know of Austen. And then the quote: "Perhaps it is in the unexpected that we are truly known."
I adore that phrase. I like the idea that no one, including myself, can ever pin me down. There's always the chance that I'll do the unexpected. And if I do, that is the truer understanding of me. Not what's expected of me but what I'm capable of. And I'm thinking positively here, so something brave and good, preferably, rather than cowardly and horrible.
My dad is a kind, respected doctor and has been for more than a couple decades now. But a while back he took a course and became a sheriff's deputy along with my brother. Now, Dad is both. And it takes the full picture to make up the definition of him. The known and the unknown, the old and the new, every bit of the unexpected.
It's something we should all appreciate in each other. There will always be pieces we do not know and shouldn't take for granted. Always the possibility of the unexpected.