Let’s play make believe.
Make believe that time could be an experiment – that if only we had the right recipes, we could plot the events of our lives, make plans without anyone laughing.
I have this pre-, self-made belief that I can make motion: that I can make anything.
But it’s based just as much on the understanding of my own limitations, on the reality that there are no instructions and that even if there were, not everything will always go according to plan. I’d do better to remind myself, too, that the always possible possibility of failure isn’t necessarily because of something I lack (unless we’re talking about luck. Anyone can severely lack that).
Sometimes (oftentimes), in anything anyone makes, there’s a contretemps: a hurdle; an inopportune, unforeseen circumstance; a happening of shit, or a “motion out of time.”
Take your pick of definition. But let me take this moment to invent an antonym.
We can try as hard as we want to make a “pourtemps”: to hedge our bets with as many opportune, advantageous, self-designed events we want; to make such good prophecies, it’s almost like we made them.
But when we most feel like we can counter one, what we’re more likely to end up with is a ‘contre.’
That or just a steaming pot of disappointment.
Talking Leaves 