Thinking about the idea of building space within a habit. All of us have certain things we need to do. All of us have the daily task of organizing our activity. How does one integrate spontaneity within a recurring activity?
It seems to me this is, first of all, the task of a sacral order. The Catholic Church, for example, recognizes different types of time. There is Ordinary Time, and what I think they call Holy Time; certainly there are Holy Days (whence holiday).
On some level there is an element of sacrifice in a formal order. If I have a role–as a husband, or father, or son–then my time is not fully my own. Ritual and socially assigned responsibility is itself is a sort of trap. But is it not possible to free yourself?
Habit, it seems to me, need not be habit. Every day is different. Every moment of time in every day has the potential to open up to unique and wonderful perceptions and insights. It is quite possible to be spontaneously happy mopping the floor, or picking up dog poop.
To simply go through the motions is to be dead, but there are still some things you have to do. The simple fact is that if you are alive, you are not in a rut; you can’t be, since every day is new.
It does seem to me, though, that few people do this, and quite often I think people perceive anyone who doesn’t follow a fixed path–the joker chasing the butterfly–to be a dunce.
These are not original ideas–Buddhism, for example, includes mindfulness as a basic part of its program–but the word I want to emphasize is SPACE. How do you create space within a confined place? That is the question I want to answer.
It has to do with what you do with your perception. For me, it seems to help to physically relax, slow down, and breathe, all of which are very old ideas.
Why, I wonder, aren’t we taught them in our schools?
Since this is my blog, I am going to think out loud for a moment, too: why are our young people not taught to expect to inhabit a role–a space–as adults? Since this is a liberal society, they can choose that role, but in our larger social order, they need to take a place, for our society as a whole to continue thriving (if it is thriving, culturally, which is another question).
It seems to me what our young are implicitly taught is that adult responsibilities can be postponed at least into their late 20 or even 30’s; and some postpone them indefinitely. Should colleges not be much more serious places?
Why are fun and responsibility necessarily construed as opposites? It is the result of the doctrine that roles are NECESSARILY confining, which makes adopting the mantle of responsibility something that is done reluctantly, and in the spirit of a dog having to come inside, after having had its run outside. This is stupid. It is unwise. And it leads almost inevitably to unnecessary sadness and resentment.