Thursday, August 27, 2009

Delicious ambiguity

I was delighted when I came cross the words "delicious ambiguity" while reading a book recently.

I find the juxtaposition of the two words appealing. I suspect it has to do with the fact that I have been described by a friend as "a person who likes to contradict himself". With due respect, I beg to disagree with my friend's commentary on me. No one likes to be contradicted, not even by oneself. Most people love to be right all the time. Few would enjoy being proved wrong. I am no exception.

I have always enjoyed exploring the paradoxical aspects of life. And since my university days, I have been defining my own growth and maturity according to my level of appetite for the uncertain, and my capacity for the ambiguous.

Given my adherence to a faith which scriptures proclaim absolute truths, and (especially) my affiliations to organizations and people whose self-defined roles include the defending and the propagation of those absolute truths, it hasn't been an easy journey for me. But it is a path I have chosen. A choice for which I have no regrets.

The road less traveled can be exciting and enriching. Embracing uncertainty can be an expression of one's faith in the One Certainty. It can be very humbling yet liberating for one to acknowledge that one can believe in absolute truths and yet not be absolutely certain of those truths.

Ambiguity can indeed be delicious. And nourishing.