Connecting the Dots

There is a poignant scene in the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off, where Alan Ruck's introverted character, Cameron Frye spends what feels like an eternal moment alone in front of Georges Seurat's, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.

The focal point amidst the flurry of activity depicted in this piece, is a little girl, standing still and dressed in white. She alone, seems to be acknowledging the viewer's presence or in this case, Cameron Frye. A connection is established and a profound exchange occurs at some level between them.

Seurat's work is distinguishable through his technique, primarily his unique, 'dot-like' application of medium. His work is mathematical, well balanced, static and yet there is movement. The closer one looks at a Seurat painting, the more indistinguishable the subject matter and like a camera lens dissolving into focus, the further one moves away from a Seurat, the clearer the subject matter.

I want to talk to you, not about Seurat (that was admittedly, merely a long segue) but about analysis, or rather, over-analysis. I'm not referring to human progression, the momentum of which could and would not exist without analysis. I'm referring to introspection. I need to talk about it, not to preach to you, but to remind myself that I over-do it. I over-analyse. And yes I'm doing it now.

Needless to say there are situations that call for healthy over-analysation - it can be enabling and empowering, revealing ourselves to ourselves. But it can also be unnecessary, inhibiting even crippling.

Having planned to write about this today, I read this morning a rather serendipitous quote by Steve Jobs; "you can't connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards". Self-analysis is basically trying to do just that, 'connect the dots' of our past in order to make sense of the present.

I don't connect the dots. Instead, I tend to analyse each and every single dot individually...my problems, my projects, my past. I try to make sense of the dot, rather than accepting the harmonious interaction between the dots. Somehow they work together to form a picture. I just need to remind myself to step back, so that the picture can reveal itself to me...like a Seurat.