The Beauty of Monotony



"Monotony collapses time; novelty unfolds it. You can exercise daily and eat healthily and live a long life, while experiencing a short one. If you spend your life sitting in a cubicle and passing papers, one day is bound to blend unmemorably into the next—and disappear. That’s why it’s important to change routines regularly, and take vacations to exotic locales, and have as many new experiences as possible that can serve to anchor our memories. Creating new memories stretches out psychological time, and lengthens our perception of our lives. - Moonwalking with Einstein, Joshua Foer

Standing on the ramparts of Fort Aguada, looking down into the crushing sea, I can't help but wonder about the insignificance of man. Nor can I expel the thought about how beautiful the world is, and how devious our mind.

Forever plotting and scheming, seeking out the promises of tomorrow. Appreciating the present, and even then, for but a fleeting moment. Because then we get bored of the monotony of beauty, the sameness of every moment of the present. Is it really so incredible, then, that we search for recluse in the by lanes of the past, or visions of the future? We just don't like that we can't bring about and appreciate subtle changes in what we see everyday.

We love children, but we love to see them grow. And learn. We love music, but we savor the delectable changes in the notes. We love the rain, knowing fully well that it will stop and we will then love the lull too.

Is it these shifts, these barely-there changes that make us appreciate, even love, what we see, and experience? Would we still be enraptured if these were stagnant, ever the same?

Can we enjoy the monotony of beauty or will we continue looking for the subtle changes of nature's music? Or would we continue getting bored and manufacture a beauty that changes, artificially?

When we come to it, can we really appreciate monotony itself?

Comments

  1. We love the rain, knowing fully well that it will stop and we will then love the lull too....

    So very well said...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I surprise myself at times!
      I really should go out and write at the spot more often. While reflecting I end up writing a lot more fluff somehow.

      At Aguada, the thoughts just flowed... :)

      Sadly, I don't have a single pic of either Aguada or Chapora fort this time :(

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts