"Few things in life are more vivifying than a shimmering reminder that
we can still surprise ourselves --those rare moments when the urn of the
self cracks and out pours something more fully alive: truer than any
narrative, more authentic than any performative personhood, unfettered
from identity and expectation and all the other scripts we live by. It
is both thrilling and terrifying to be so reminded that we know
ourselves only incompletely and the future not at all; that inside us
dwell parts so unexplored as to be capable of surprising the conscious
totality --- parts drawing on some subterranean river of lore to make
instantaneous decisions we never could have planned and did not
anticipate." Maria Popova shares more in this piece that explores the
theme of improvisation in violinist Natalie Hodges' book, "Uncommon
Measure: A Journey Through Music, Performance, and the Science of Time.
