Monday, November 20, 2006

"Drama is life with the boring bits left out"

That's what Alfred Hitchcock said.

A problem for many of us is that we've expected life to be a full-fledged, Technicolor, HDTV dramatic epic all the time. I know that I've lived most of my life under this delusion.

But if we're fortunate, we trip over the wisdom that most of life is lived in the little places of daily routines and mundane tasks.

For many, this realization is a disappointment. For others, though, it's a vital learning, leading to mature acceptance. Tamar Jacobson writes:
...recently I have been noticing that, in fact, life is quite ordinary. It seems so much smaller, and my expectations have become almost non-existent. Dreams of academia or the one love of my life have been brought way down to size. I don't think they have been shattered. It's not disappointment, cynicism or disillusionment. I am not sad or bitter about it. Rather, it feels like a peaceful acceptance that life is just that. Little acts, mundane, daily routines. Every now and again someone will surprise me with an act of kindness, compassion or generosity of spirit. Or there will be a beautiful sunrise bringing me out of a painful night. Sometimes life will be sprinkled with fiction that might suspend my reality for a moment, filling me with joy or pleasure and then on I go again, plodding along through life.

In fact, I realize, it is quite comforting not to have to go crazy any more, trying to cover all this reality up with desperation and pain, angst and glorious passion.

Plodding feels just fine to me right about now.
Read the whole thing.

(For more on life lived in mundane, everyday places, go here and here.)

6 comments:

jafabrit said...

Nice post and so true. I rather like plodding along, and making my own excitment in little ways. Besides the mundane moments are sometimes the most beautiful and precious. what I would give to do the most mundane things with my darling mother back home in england. Even just standing over the sink washing the dishes with her would be a special treat.

Icepick said...

I don't mind that life isn't a drama. But I'm pretty ticked off that it frequently resembels a tragicomedy, or a bad spoof. But perhaps that's just me!

Mark Daniels said...

J, T, & I:
Thanks for the comments.

Jafa, I think you're right that it's the memory of ordinary things that prove most precious to us as the years go by.

Tamar, I was happy to link to your post.

Ice, a tragicomedy, huh? Maybe there's a movie script or two could be made from your life. A tragicomedy ought to pay some rewards!

Mark

Anonymous said...

Thank goodness I still have a few boring bits left, I don't think I could survive living the life shown in some modern 'dramas'!

Mark Daniels said...

SN2C:
Amen to that!

Mark

Icepick said...

Mark, I've got nothing sales-worthy. Fortunately the tragic parts haven't been all that unusual, and unfortunately the comic parts haven't been all that funny. (There are a few exceptions to that last part, but those are either moments of darkest humor, or alternately moments that have been to personal for anyone not there to appreciate.)

And I will also echo SN2C's comment. Boring is good! At least 90% of everything that is exciting is bad. For example, car wrecks are very exciting for those who get caught in them. Excitement != Good.