Avoiding Certainty

Avoiding certainty. 

I like the known, the predictable, and the planned. Perhaps 

certainty should have been my middle name. So you can imagine how I felt when I came across the idea of avoiding certainty in the book Road Trip Nation. 

According to its authors, "Its difficult to accept, but possibility actually exists within ambiguity and confusion."  Why is it that certainty is my go to when some of my best memories were nothing but certain?

I can't help but laugh when I remember the day that one of my students brought her newly hatched butterfly to school to release on the playground. As I unscrewed the lid of the jar with twenty-two pairs of eyes glued on to the captive inside, a large black bird swooped down out of nowhere for a tasty morsel. 

In one huge gasp we all yelled, "No," and ran toward the offending culprit hoping to curtail a catastrophe. As luck would have it good fortune fell upon our tiny winged friend, and he or she lived to see another hour. Of course, the teachable moment extended to the food chain and the circle of life, as we had no idea of the fate of our beloved butterfly. 

The confusion of that moment not only made for the possibility of a lasting memory, but a good chuckle as well.