The quartet sang their harmonies in German.

A member of the cast, planted among the audience, stood up and read her speaking part as The Wealthy Woman.

The quartet responded.

The bartender set down the vodka and tonic he had been crafting, stepped out from behind his counter, and recited his own practiced lines as The Sailor.

I took a sip of my beer.

It wasn’t  exactly what you would call a typical Friday night.

I was in a bar, and I was watching a German opera. There’s something about those two sentences that don’t really go together and I don’t think it’s the phrase “German opera.” (Though, you know, I’m no expert.)

Sister-friend Emily sings in a choir. One of her fellow choir singers participates in this group that has made it their mission to bring art to the people. And where are the people? In bars.

To support this culturally valuable mission, we decided to attend one such opera two weeks ago.

It was impressive, their talent in all things opera cannot be denied, but it was also rather strange. My brain couldn’t quite strike an accord between these two very different kinds of entertainment.

And it got me thinking about boundaries – specifically related to art – and the limits we impose on our work.

We fit  our world views into boxes that we can easily categorize. In this day and age we almost have to do this in the name of self-preservation, or we risk being overrun with ideas and information. But at what point does this need for organization bind us?

At what point do we become our own worse naysayers, doomed to constantly cut down our aspirations because our artistic ideas don’t fit into one box or another?

So here’s my challenge to you, and to myself, and to the gal sitting next to me at the opera in a bar: as 2011 comes to an end, push yourself to create something that doesn’t fit in any of your self-imposed categories. As ideas strike you over the next two months, try not to view them through the prism of Things That Have Already Been Done. Try not to base them on That Thing That I Once Saw At That Place.

Instead, take that idea, and chuck it over the side of your organizational walls. See where it lands. Then, go pick it up, and run with it.

Happy November, everyone!