1 / 25 / 2024

Dear Friends,

Ed Catmull’s book about creativity has a lot of great stuff (including surprising BTS looks at Pixar classics, as well as fun nuggets about the dynamics with Steve Jobs and Disney.) But this was the sentence that really got me.

“By definition, ‘discovery’ means you don’t know the answer when you start.”

I once heard someone say that the single biggest priority of a parent should be to help their kid discover who they are. I’d always loved that, the idea of supporting these young minds – and our favorite people in the world - on their journeys to explore their own interests, talents, and unique idiosyncrasies. In my mind, the emphasis had always been to help these kids discover who THEY are – the reminder being that it’s not about what we (as the parents) want or think is right, but to let them figure out what’s right for them personally.

But Catmull’s words spun things differently for me. He highlights the unknown inherent in the idea of a “discovery”. It’s about finding new insights for the first time. Exploring something – with honest curiosity – when you genuinely don’t have a clue what the answer is upon starting. That’s a really big thing. And kind of unsettling, too.

Because doesn’t us being the adults to our kids mean we have more experience and wisdom to guide them? Like we don’t know the exact right path for them, but we’ve definitely gained some reasonable credibility and authority with our years ahead of them . . . right?

Of course there’s truth in that, but the reality is, it’s precisely when we stop discovering that we make all the wrong assumptions. I think that's the point – as soon as you think you’ve got it figured out, and you stop genuinely, curiously, intentionally “discovering” – that’s when you start blind repetition. Remembering to do the opposite – seeking to DISCOVER that personal, new, creative uniqueness in our girls that’s an opportunity to be relished. And I, for one, actually love the idea that we have no idea where it’s all going to lead. 💜💙