Embracing constraints
October 18, 2007
“You have to embrace the constraints”, that’s what people keep telling me about a myriad of subjects.
When you write poetry, people tell you to stick to the forms. When you write software, you have to stay within time and budgetary limits. When you dance, your style should better not be too unusual… the list just goes on and on! But why? What does it mean?
I have to admit I never really got it, I mean, I understand the logic of staying within established boundaries, but why should you embrace that like it’s a good thing?
This week, I’m happy to say.. I got it! You see, last Friday I went on a short trip to Lisbon* on an unbelievably low budget, low as in “Do I even have enough money to get back to the airport?”. And it turned out to be amazing!
You see, in Lisbon it turns out that transportation is very cheap, so we decided to check out the region for two days — the cheapest possible option.
On the first day we went hiking through the hills instead of taking the bus (which we were told is a choice you’d only make if you’re mad or masochistic), the walk was tough, but beautiful. On the second we got a free bike on loan in a beach village called Cascais, and went for a mind blowing ride along the coast of the Atlantic. If we’d have more money, I doubt we’d have gone walking and biking, busses were available both times… they’d have saved us hours.. but oh boy what we’d have missed!
I feel so lucky we were broke ;-) Embracing constraints indeed!
* = Hence my short absence here ;-)
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