Patterns

The comfort in patterns is universal. Routine tasks nowadays take on an oversized importance. A psychology person might say that by doing the same thing the same way every time we obtain the satisfaction of predictability. What the heck is more important than that now? Whether it’s the way we brush our teeth, add milk to coffee, sanitize the door knobs, dry our hair or butter our toast, we gain some control or at least the illusion of it. The expected outcome is mostly assured. I say mostly because there are intervening moments which may upset our expectations: as in running out of butter or spilling milk.

These are the small and brief patterns of everyday existence. They are the comforting routines. Any disruption or alteration adds to the frustration and stress that we already feel. Who would have guessed that the direction of the bathroom tissue roll could be so crucial to mental health? Edgy is what we are. See if you don’t recognize some recent repetitive behavior patterns:

Order on line, order more on line – listen for the delivery truck (if you are suburban) - eat more snack food – eat more cookies, not as a snack – rearrange the furniture – rearrange the rugs – bake – tidy up the storage spaces - leave the tv on all day – clean up contact lists on your phone – organize your streaming schedule – order take away as a special occasion – eat more cookies – appreciate pasta.

The point of all this is that these are patterns of the whole and that they are part of our modern living now. If you recognize some of these tendencies then you are not alone and there is some comfort in that by itself. “Human, all too human” as Fred Nietzsche would have said and did say. Maybe he wasn’t referring to too many doughnuts but you get the idea.

The pattern may occur in the task or in its timing. You might like to do certain things at a certain time of day or in a certain sequence. You check the mail and then rub down the door knobs. You might as well as long as you are standing there with the sanitizer close at hand (remember that I counselled that strategy to put some near each entry). Chaos is not our friend even though the philosophers declare that it is the nature of the universe. Who gives a fig about that speculation? Some of us are down in the dirty bog of daily mud wrestling. Ivory tower intellectualizing has a place but not so much in the every day existence of most people. As with most emotions there are degrees of desperation. It is good to remember that most of us in this favored land are not suffering what those in the Sahel may be enduring.

Which reminds me to mention that this period of strain is what we have been training for all our lives. All that schooling and socialization and good will we have exchanged is the well spring from which we draw power to endure adversity. Patterns help us deflect the short-term disappointment but it is our molded character which will see us through. Can I get an Amen to that?  Sit with your loved ones at table or at computer and share a laugh. Those are still remedial routines in the long term.

I owe you many hugs,

Celeste