Routines — Keeping Us Sane, Or Not?
Can life be a routine?
Of course not!
But, some are practical. Brush your teeth twice daily. Mornings and evenings. Keeps your teeth healthy. Read the morning paper to keep you informed.
Routines are there to create a sense of predictability in a rather chaotic world. And thus, generate stability.
But, routines — like institutions — can be doing more harm than good. They stifle creativity. They strangle the spirit. They close our minds. If we’re not attentive enough.
I watched a documentary on the making of the classic “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest”, with Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher in the Oscar-winning lead roles, and Milos Forman as the equally winning Oscar-winning director, in the … yes … Oscar-winning movie — and script (one of only three films getting the ‘big five’ Oscars). In the end of that documentary, Milos Forman states;
“We must live together and create institutions; governments, schools, hospitals, whatever, you know … To help us, to serve us, you know … But you always end up being dominated by these institutions. Being ordered by these institutions, what to do and how to live, things like that … So that’s a conflict as long as mankind I guess, and it will always be like that.”
Quite accurate!
And what more than a mental institution can be using routines as building blocks for its creation?
I set out to write here on Open Talks three times a week. Tuesdays with an essay. Thursday with a lengthier article. Sunday with an idea.
The first week went fine! Delivered. But, my scattered and absent mind forgot yesterday to write that Tuesday Essay. Human, I guess! To paraphrase Shakespeare from Henry VI, “first things, let’s break the routines!”.
I guess we all have a little latent rebel within, our own little R. P. McMurphy, and break the rules as soon as they are set up, to oppose our own Nurse Ratched!
Otherwise, I would guess we all turn insane!
But this is also that thing with routines.
New ones can take some time to trim in! And what worse than to break the routine, and compensate for the absent Tuesday Writing, with some Wednesday Scribbling? Doable!
At least, it gave me the idea of what to write about today!
Guess the sayings, “no harm coming with a good”, and “it’s a hard time learning old dogs to sit” both apply!
