I love the Olympics, but I haven't been able to watch them because our box TV does not stream any channels with the Olympics. Growing up in Hong Kong, the Olympics were a big deal. This was primarily because the city had free access to two channels on TV, and almost everyone in the city watched those two channels. So, whenever it was the Olympics or the World Cup, the whole city would watch. We talked about it and gathered around it.
I enjoyed having only two channels to choose from. I enjoyed either deciding to watch what was on or turning it off because there was nothing good to watch. And when there was something good to watch, almost everyone watched it. These limitations created community and shared conversations.
…which leads me to think about limitations.
Limitations in finding answers. I can either reach for my phone and look up something immediately with a gazillion answers or reach for something limited like a dictionary or encyclopedia or ask someone. If no answer is found, perhaps it's a beauty to wonder.
Limitations in cooking. I'm terrible at meal planning, but if you give me some groceries, I can usually figure out what to cook. Let's say all we had was salmon in the fridge. We can put salmon on rice, salmon on salad, or salmon on noodles. Having one protein pushes me to be creative and create all kinds of meals.
Limitations in creating. I recently gave myself a project to build out my licensing portfolio. However, I came to it without any brief, except to create anything and everything. This was the worst idea. I illustrated a handful of images with nothing working together and perhaps wasted a whole week of work. If I had decided on a theme and an audience and stuck with it, I would have something to show.
I think we often give limitations a bad reputation. “It's so limiting.” But, in limitations, we have freedom. Yes, when you choose one thing, you reject everything else, but by choosing that one thing and sticking with it, you get to marinate in it, deep dive into it, and find the good.
