“You’ve been making the wrong mistakes.”

Robin D. G. Kelley had a dream where Thelonious Monk appeared to him while he was practicing piano and told him the above.

I read this in Kelley’s amazing Monk biography and for the last fifteen years this oneiric wisdom has helped guide my writing.

“You’ve been making the wrong mistakes.”

Yes, Mr. Monk.

Now onto whatever mistake will bring me to the right mistake.