It’s groundhog day here in Melbourne. You don’t miss what you have until its gone.
You know what’s killing me right now?
All the certainty.
I’ve never had so much certainty in my life. Each day is totally precedented. I’m sailing around and around in chartered waters.
And it’s getting me down.
This is life in Melbourne in Stage 4 lockdown.
It’s groundhog day. Every day feels like it’s the same.
I used to look forward to the weekends. Now Saturday morning is the same as every other morning – shuffling around in my underpants wondering if it’s a respectable hour to be hitting the liqueur cabinet.
I can actually say I’ve made good use of lockdown. I’ve taken it as an opportunity to really focus and bang some great stuff out. I was actually surprised at how productive I could be when there were no distractions.
But now I’m realising that I actually really like distractions. I really miss interruptions. I miss having my day derailed and taken in an interesting new direction.
I miss the variety.
Partly this is a case of the grass is always greener. When I was being interrupted all the time, I wanted to be left alone. Now that I’m left alone, I’m craving interruption and some social interaction.
But it’s also about what the human needs to be happy. It needs both stability and variety.
They need to be in balance.
The human is not a machine. If you give it the same day over and over again, it will get bored and tear its eyes out.
But if you give it too much variety – if it never knows where it’s next meal is coming from – then it will probably collapse into anxiety.
A roller-coaster is only fun if you know you can get off.
And every person probably has a different idea of where the balance is – what the ideal variety to stability ratio is.
It’s like music in that sense.
I’ve heard it said that music is the perfect balance of repetition and novelty.
There are structures like rhythms and bass-lines that give music predictability. But if the music is too predictable, it gets boring. (EDM – looking at you.) You need some novelty, in the melody line for example, to keep it ‘fresh’.
Too much novelty though and it just starts to just feel like noise.
And so music is a sonic experience that appeals to the human need for both stability and variety.
So this is one of the unexpected lessons I’ll be taking from Covid experience.
My ideal life involves balance. There’s a sweet-spot where the certainty to variety ratio is just right.
That means getting disciplined on the certainty side – making sure that I don’t end up with too many distractions in my day.
But it also means making sure that I’m getting enough variety. That I’m sampling from a satisfying range of experience.
It’s my responsibility.
For now, my hands are tied. There isn’t all that much I can do.
But on the other side of Covid, for a while, my life is going to be a veritable variety store.
JG
Trevor Kitson says
Excellent evaluation, but society still requires open public debate on covid (Influenza) & its many possible lines of combat to the Disease along with an in-depth Line Format spreadsheet on do’s & Dont’s so to speak to put to rest the appearance of Authoritarian Suppression of information.
Mike Flavell says
My quest is funding “truth”. In my 77 years there’ seem to be different truths. From about 0 to 7 it’s what our parents told us. Then we are challenged when we see something a little different but shrug it off
Then we go to school and believe that most of what we are taught is the truth. The 3 R’s can’t be challenged much. The movies we see are those made in Hollywood and anything to do with WW2. Generally had the Americans as the hero’s and victors so that became our truth. Then we go to high school and perhaps university where we Read books like 1984 etc and say shit that could never be. I was born in 1943 by the way and bought up in suburban Melbourne. All going good we meet our sex partners get married have kids and start passing on our truths. Fast forward to now and the internet and AI and social media and Mainstream News. Fuck, where’s the “truth’”. Who do I believe? Who do our kids believe, who do my buddies believe. Now I’m scared to have an opinion to share in case I get ostracised or sidelined. If I go in the street without a mask I’m looked at as a traitor If I don’t take the Vaccine I won’t get a job or I drivers licence. What’s in that vaccine? Is it gonna make me into a zombie, who do I believe. Can someone please tell me the truth the raw and real truth. If it has a money tail attached to some super rich elitist or globalist I’m unlikely to believe you!!