Routine, News, and Olds

I have heard it said that men love routine. They want to do what they do, the way they want to do it. One thing needs to follow the other like it's supposed to. Things that disrupt the routine are to be avoided. Routine allows us to settle into a comfortable groove. But how long until a groove becomes a rut? Back to that in a second.

I'm going to steal a couple of quotes from Terry Pratchett, one of my favorite writers. Both of them involve his wonderfully-written character Lord Vetinari, the Patrician of the city of Ankh-Morpork. Vetinari has taken a city of chaos and hasn't eliminated disorder, but rather arranged it along certain lines.

"The guild leaders examined their thoughts and decided that what they did not want was power. What they wanted was that tomorrow should be pretty much like today." Routine of action. Routine of events. Predictability. We can plan. We can anticipate. We can expect. No surprises. (Geneva Marney once told me that I could turn anything into a sports analogy, so I'll mention that coaches and managers--especially NFL coaches--are obsessed with routine, tendencies, and predictability. They loathe not having control over events).

"People...like to know that, say, a dog will bite a man. That is what dogs do. They don't want to know that a man bites a dog, because the world is not supposed to happen like that. In short, what people think they want is news, but what they really crave is olds." Vetinari is referring to routine of thought, rather than routine of action. The routine of thought is more dangerous than routine of action, though they may stem from the same source. Routine of thought is what leads to the ruts I mentioned before.

I like routine of action. I like routine of thought. When something unexpected presents itself, even if it's something I might enjoy or appreciate, my initial reaction is to turn away. So it is with great excitement and a bit of anxiousness that I long for May to arrive. My cousin will be staying with me over the summer. I haven't lived with anyone in over six and a half years. Every routine I have is about to be shot out of a cannon. Waking up. Getting ready. Watching TV. Going to church. Playing video games. Cooking dinner. And I say this in all honesty: I'm looking forward to every second.