Not What You Were Expecting

Today's exercise for myself is to subvert expectations, watch my expectations be subverted, or notice the capacity for subverted expectations. The other day, I took my daughter to buy a white garment to dye in her batik class and I suggested a polo shirt. She thought that batiking a polo shirt was weird and I tried to explain to her that is was cool because it subverted expectations. She wasn't interested in hearing it at that point.

In a couple of weeks we are going to be taking my daughter to visit her Kansas City relatives and my father-in-law suggested we meet in Des Moines and find something fun to do there. Fun. In Des Moines. Now, I'm not a big cosmopolitan snob, but I've driven through Des Moines more times than I can count and we couldn't even find a good place for lunch there. Everyone else has seemed to have a lot more enthusiasm for this than I have.

Desperately, I turned to the internet only to discover that there are something like 5 or 6 historical homes to tour. You have to understand, we all have our own nerdy buttons (I think I have more than the average) and historical home tours is a big one for me. So now, I'm the one who's all worked up about the historic homes.

Also, the Des Moines Art Center is housed in a building designed by (NERD ALERT) Eliel Saarinen with additions by Richard Meier and I.M. Pei. Okay, I'm sold.

Having our expectations subverted is a wonderful exercise in recognizing:

• Our attachment to our ideas and investment in them
• How our preconceptions take us out of living in the present as we make decisions about how things will be – a recipe for having them disrupted either for the better or worse

So, today (and maybe all week) I will notice when I have expectations, when I can let go of them, and when they are subverted (as well as making an effort to gently subvert them in others).

I want to hear about your experience with your expectations being subverted (or subverting others). Hey guys! I'm dying for a conversation here!