Gail Caldwell on the unknown

The old Navajo weavers used to insert an unmatched thread into each of their rugs, a contrasting color that runs to the outside edge. You can spot an authentic rug by this intentional flaw, which is called a spirit line, meant to release the energy trapped inside of the rug and pave the way for the next creation.

Every story in life worth holding onto has to have a spirit line. You can call this hope or tomorrow or the “and then” of narrative itself, but without it–without that bright dissonant fact of the unknown–of what we cannot control–consciousness and everything with it would tumble inward and implode. The universe insists that what is fixed is also finite.

—Gail Caldwell, Let’s Take the Long Way Home