Capricious — The Strange Charm of the Unpredictable

"Have you ever been completely at the mercy of something that changed its mind the moment you thought you understood it — weather, a market, a creative process, a person you loved?"

Have you ever been completely at the mercy of something that changed its mind the moment you thought you understood it — weather, a market, a creative process, a person you loved?

That's capricious. And it's a word worth knowing, not just to describe others, but to occasionally recognize in yourself.

Capricious means given to sudden and unaccountable changes of mood or behavior. It comes — delightfully — from the Italian capriccio, which meant a sudden start or motion, like a goat leaping. And earlier still, from the Italian capro, meaning goat. The word is essentially saying: this thing moves like a goat. Unpredictably, suddenly, by its own mysterious logic, up the side of a rock face that looked impossible.

Capricious can describe the weather — famously so. A capricious spring day gives you sunshine and then hail and then sunshine again, apparently just because it can. Capricious fortune bestows and takes away without explaining itself. A capricious employer changes policy with the wind. A capricious muse shows up at three in the morning and vanishes for three weeks.

There's no question that capriciousness is difficult. Relationships with capricious people are exhausting. Systems governed by capricious rules are maddening. You can't plan around something that has no plan.

But there's also something about capriciousness that resists the deadening of predictability. The capricious turn in a piece of music that surprises you. The capricious conversation partner who takes the discussion somewhere you never expected. The capricious summer storm that breaks the heat. Capriciousness has energy. It has the vitality of something that isn't following a script.

And if we're honest: we are all a little capricious. We contain multitudes. We change. We wake up differently than we fell asleep. That's not a flaw — it's the evidence of inner weather.

Here's your question: Where in your life does capriciousness create problems — and where might a little more unpredictability actually open things up?