Fish Flop
“All the towering materialism which dominates the modern mind rest ultimately upon one assumption; a false assumption. It is supposed that if a thing goes on repeating itself it is probably dead; a piece of clockwork…The sun rises every morning. I do not rise every morning; but the variation is due not to my activity, but to my inaction…it might be true that the sun rises regularly because he never gets tired of rising. His routine might be due, not a to lifelessness, but to a rush of life…A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life.…They always say, ‘Do it again’; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon” (Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton, 2001, p83-84, originally published in 1908 emphasis mine).
Are you strong enough to exult in monotony? Or do you need constant variation?
Spontaneity doesn’t lead to life. I once spontaneously tried to do the worm, but it looked more like the fish.
How do you bring joy to your household? Through variation or through routine?
My family’s routine hangs on three things. Did we enjoy weekly worship? Did we enjoy daily family dinner? Did each one of us take one more step today down the path God has put in front of us? That structure is what all other routines are built on.
Adventure is another type of joy, but one of its chief glories is to make us remember the beauty of monotony. Summer sausage and trail mix are amazing on a backpacking trip, and they also make you rejoice when you return for a home cooked meal.
What do you think?
Joseph