Ruminations on the subject of routines. Love it or loathe it.
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It’s another day. We all have them. Beginning again. We show up.
Some days begin autonomously, on cruise control, no adjustments necessary. No deep cognitive thought, just rote responses, picking up where we left off yesterday.
Others can begin chaotic, out of context and control, routine disrupted. Which is best, control or routine?
‘Control?’ That’s a joke. It’s a word. We toss it around loosely as though it infuses us with mystical psychic powers or abilities to manipulate events of life. The Vagaries of the Fates run things, you know. It routinely makes fools of anybody who thinks otherwise.
We can build a pretty good case for the benefits of routine. A well-planned pattern can save a lot of wasted efforts and confusion. Sometimes I get bored with the ‘no-end-in-sight,’ the same-old-same-old sequential habits. You know, the mechanical ‘this-follows-that’ just because it’s always been that way. You?
Once I decided to reverse the ingrained sequential but orderly ritual of routine to see what happens. Chaos, confusion, stumbling around, that’s what. Try it yourself: Reverse hands, then try to control the computer mouse, brush your teeth, comb your hair, sleep on another side of the bed. Simple experiments demonstrate the superiority of routine.
Without it, I stagger around, mentally perplexed, like being lost in a back alley in Beirut, separated from the comfortable conformity of routine. I strain to remember, “Did I do this, or that, did I forget something?” The brain loves being programmed. It isn’t keen on changing sides to compliment stupid experiments. “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it,” it says.
Fortunately, life’s not so complicated that our dog, Bogey, cannot bring us back around to the value of routine. It’s 8:00 AM. I look up and there he is. He stares at me. His eyes do the talking…time for our walk. Canine sign language.
He wears no watch; time means nothing to him. But his brain telegraphs what happens at 8:00 every morning. He’s a product of routine, detests confusion. Life works in perfect rhythm for him. We’d be better off if we observed dog patterns and followed their leads.
We leash up, water up, step out onto the wide sidewalk of life with its daily surprises of dog-eat-dog. Not literally, of course, that’s just what we’re faced with sometimes. Our sidewalks are littered with skeletons of yesterday.
But not his. He leads with his nose, I follow. Doggie Facebook, Tweets and texts on every shrub, every blade of grass. He leaves his comments for the next dog to figure out. He never gets bogged down in the rut of routine. He’s flexible, not fixed. He leaves that malaise to us.
He knows where all the beach access paths are. When he’s ready for one, he looks at me and asks no questions. He heads out. He must have a built-in GPS.
On the beach he’s free of the leash. Nobody likes a leash, not you, not me, not Bogey. He continues the quest for whatever grail his nose sniffs. He takes life as it comes, sniff by sniff. No routine here, freedom to be himself.
Notwithstanding his sense of freedom, routine is never far away. He knows by instinct just the right path home, and when we approach it, no commands are necessary. Dogs know where home is.
After this walk, routine tells him it’s snack time. He sits, and waits. He knows I know, no words necessary. Then he knows something else…it’s nap time. Such is the life of a dog who loves routine.
In another room the Robo-vac is at work. It’s a marvel of AI. It’s programmed for routine. It has mapped all of downstairs and with its cylindrical body it whirrs, round and round, picking up dust and sand until it has run its entire course. Then it returns to its home, the mother portal to deposit its contents, rest and be recharged. The future is now, folks.
* * *
Examples of the ritual of routine are everywhere. Is it a blessing or a curse? It’s up to us to decide. It works for Bogey and the Robo-vac. Maybe it has some merit for us.
At least one thing is for certain: To know the way Home is a blessing indeed.
Bud Hearn
July 24, 2023