Creativity & Freedom

I have no idea what the source was, but somewhere I once read that despite the stereotype of Buddhism being about a peaceful acceptance of what is happening, this believer said at its core, the Buddha focused on Freedom + Surprise.
Hmm. I’ll have the to research that a bit, since it sounds a bit like something I might have invented.
If this was never said in the name of the Buddha, it certainly fits the life of an artist. No one wants a negative surprise, but since adventurous travel is to me a great parallel of what it feels like to make art, and both involve occasional disasters somehow mingled with feels of joy, surprise and invention.
I use the element of surprise in my course structure. Not to be in control (I hope), but because breaking routines (lecture, reading assignment, quiz, most of which seldom happen in my Visual Thinking classes) I can maintain a higher energy level for my students. They are uncertain about where we may be headed. Again, there are the nice boring trips which can be really relaxing, the luxury tour, with a night spent at something like a Ritz Carlton, and then there is the sort of travel that keeps us on our toes.

As travel writer, Paul Theroux said, “Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they are going.”