Unordinary
Extraordinary is something we might want to become or could become; unordinary is what lies beneath my everyday life, like an interior seam of precious metal hidden by layers of my surface ordinariness; something to be uncovered and perhaps at times, even unleashed.
UNORDINARY
is a word that belongs to our future, a word that could open up a different understanding of what it means to be singular, what it means to be communally human, and above all, what it means to be here, in this difficult world; all of us, every one of us, trying to live an extraordinary, ordinary life.
Unordinary might be a more merciful word than the word extraordinary. Extraordinary is too extraordinary a word. We often wield the word extraordinary as a weapon against ourselves: wanting to be extraordinary has us thinking we need to be another, better version of ourselves: a virtuoso violinist, a genius mathematician, a luminary in the field of literature. Extraordinary is a word that has us emulating what others carry easily in themselves but that for us, emulating another, almost always becomes a burden: extraordinary is what I would like to be, unordinary is what I am already, hidden inside me, but which is waiting to be revealed, under the guise of my ordinary life.
Unordinary carries a sense of uncovering, of finding something undefinable but precious beneath the surface of the world, beneath the surface of my everyday self and my everyday life. The words beneath the words, the gift at the centre of what is offered at the surface. Extraordinary is almost always approached through doing, unordinary is approached and uncovered through undoing, through a radical simplification of what I know about myself and my world.
All artistic paths and almost all paths of self-knowledge begin with inspiration from and emulation of another’s extraordinary gifts: an astonishing musical performance fully heard, a masterly painting seen, dancers witnessed in awe - in our witness is the gift of their easy un-ordinariness, brought out as sheer unassailable presence. Admiration and emulation is always where we start in attempting the extraordinary but all paths of emulation taken too far become paths of impersonation: I am not that person no matter how much I sound like them, in my voice, on the violin, in the meeting room, on the dance floor. My unordinary self is so much more difficult to approach than my extraordinary self.
Extraordinary is something we might want to become or could become; unordinary is what lies beneath my everyday life, like an interior seam of precious metal hidden by layers of my surface ordinariness; something to be uncovered and perhaps at times, even unleashed. Unordinary says there is something yet to be seen in me, something yet to emerge. Unordinary is the ordinary me, but half-a-shade braver than my surface-self because it has to be brought out from what is hidden. The extraordinary might take effort and constant practice, but bringing out the unordinary from the hidden takes real, personal courage.
The extraordinary is what others witness in me when I go through the full measure of undoing and uncovering that reveals my unordinary, ordinary self. The ease of the bow across the strings creating the sublime, the easy aplomb with which I orchestrate a meeting, the deft touch of the potter’s hand against the wet, spinning clay. Unordinary is the ultimate experience of absolute presence, complete personal expression and a burgeoning sense of freedom amidst all our responsibilities and our many duties.
Unordinary is worthy of a lifetime’s dedication and a lifetime’s journey; and yet, in such an extraordinary way, unordinary is always, always, always, just a single step away from my ordinary, everyday life.
-from the forthcoming Consolations II available November 2024
“Unordinary is the ultimate experience of absolute presence, complete personal expression.”
A distinction that embodies humility. 🙏
" unordinary is what I am already, hidden inside me, but which is waiting to be revealed, under the guise of my ordinary life." Yes...