Being unable to decide can be a space for creativity and maturation, according to the poetic approach of Jeff Foster presented by The Marginalian. In its essay, published on 9 October 2026, the website examines our need for certainty and suggests a different way of looking at moments when an answer has not yet taken shape.
The starting point is life's open outcome: our personal paths, the future of the human species and that of the universe remain undetermined. The essay argues that we turn to certainty because we find it difficult to tolerate multiple possibilities. It also connects creativity with a willingness to attempt something whose outcome we do not know, leaving room for doubt instead of demanding a definitive answer from the outset.
In this context, remaining in uncertainty is presented as an act of courage within a culture that often covers its cracks with the conviction that it is right. This idea rests on the recognition that we humans continue to take shape. The aim, according to the essay, is to remain honest about our imperfect nature and the open character of life.
Foster's poem comes from the collection The Way of Rest: Finding the Courage to Hold Everything in Love. The collection invites readers to make room in their experience for things they consider unwanted, unlovable or worthy of rejection. In this particular poem, Foster calls on the hesitant person to slow down, breathe and approach their position with curiosity, without hastily ruling out any possibility.
The poet gives indecision a different meaning: he describes it as a living place where possible choices develop. In his spiritual view, doubt can contain strength, and not knowing can require courage. The decision emerges through the image of growth that needs time and care, while trust in an intelligence beyond the mind forms part of his poetic language.
In the book's introduction, Foster wonders whether what frightens us is life's excessive intensity. The Marginalian connects this thought with the rush to reach conclusions: a decision can limit the range of possibilities and make experience more bearable, but also less open. The essay thus ends with a question about how we can participate more fully in life without the search for certainty limiting what we are willing to experience.
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