The Reruns of Our Lives

Reruns in Our Lives vs. Originality

Always begin with a few quotes.

“Insist upon yourself.  Be original.” -  Ralph Waldo Emerson

“If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.” - Sir Ken Robinson

“All good things that exist are the fruits of originality.” - John Stuart Mills

These quotes, taken from a milk carton, were likely put there to inspire or maybe to fill a little space.  They sustain all we celebrate originality -thoeretically.  Yet, many of not most of us take great effort to avoid originality, preferring to live our life as a rerun.    We prefer to repeat old habits, to travel on familiar paths, and to change little from our well worn ways.   For kids, everyday is full of “newness.”  They are seeing, exploring, and learning all the time – much of it is new.  Their world is so very much different from ours.    In fact, the expression we love to use, “I feel like a kid again,” seems to hearken back those days long past of the time when we experienced newness all the time. 

The notion of originality used here is about our lives, not the origin of new philosophical or scientific insights.  Those are reserved for the very few; I trust none of us. 

So, what is this business about reruns, the topic of this note?  Naturally, it doesn’t just mean watching past episodes of “Seinfeld.”  It implies reruns vs. originality in our lives.  So let’s look at a life, that basically amounts to work, family, leisure, religion.    Most of life’s processes are reruns. 

Some of our daily reruns include the following.  You may add your personal list.

• Watching the next sports game, playing computer games.
• Visiting old friends, social clubs.
• Daily habits, coffee in the morning, shower, dress, dinner at 6, bedtime, newspaper, TV news, favorite chair, church, et.al.
• Activities: favorite restaurants, hotels, roads.
• Family reunions, though here we touch upon the importance of renewing old memories.
• Watching TV reruns, seeing the same angst, the same jokes, the same situations over and over again.

Nonetheless, the reruns of our lives imply familiarity, comfort, certitude, convenience, all of merit and importance in our journey.   Reruns’ serious defect is their abject lack of spontaneity and originality.  Reruns are a simple, even slippery slope into step into the world of permanence, where there are few surprises, little to excite, and nothing new.  See our previous blog: http://used-ideas.blogspot.com/2012/06/theory-of-permanence.html. We crave a world of permanence. 

Of comfort to some is the viewing, on TV or in person, of actual “rerun” events, not exactly the same, but with possible surprises.  One example is watching our team play its next game.  Sure, we don’t know what will happen, but we’ve seen all the moves dozens of times.  We have seen the ups-and-downs of a typical game.  We know the eventual penalties, the rallies to victor, the plummets to defeat.  But, we don’t know the actual outcome prior to the event.  So, we watch.  Again and again.  It is the possibility of that surprise outcome that titillates.  Note that reruns of actual games have little value to even the rabid fan.  Another is playing bridge or other games with friends.  Mostly, we know what may happen when we get good cards or bad, but the actual outcome and final tally is always a surprise, if only a little one.  These examples are not of originality, but “reruns with a twist.”  For many, however, this crosses the bar. 

Another rerun is one with emotion.  You want to experience an emotion and know that repeating a familiar event may do it.  The emotion depends on the mood, or the current state of anticipation, but they may be a certain “newness.”  Of course, this only works a few times.   For example, when I watch an old and familiar movie, at times I emotionally appreciate the dialogue, the outcome, or the drama, all in various combination with my current state of mind.  Sometime, I watch just to see what I’ve missed before.

Sometimes we say we’re bored, but in reality just maybe we want to be bored.  Boredom is the comfort food of the appetite of life.

Symptoms of originality.  Some of these, most of these involve personal risk. Cessation of all TV rerun watching will free up hours of time.  In some cases, spontaneity will substitute for originality.  Here are a few examples.  Not every attempt will work.  Keep trying.

1.  Reading different types of books – not just, say, biographies.
2.  Beginning a new and vastly different hobby.
3. Traveling to new and different places, and in a different way. 
4. Taking a new job simply for the challenge.
5. Challenging your religious convictions by attending other churches – or a church. 
6. Joining a new group, with new people, with purposes new to you.

So you want to be more original - live not quite such a rerun life style?  The first step is to stop the reruns.  Make a list of those particular reruns you can give up.  Give them up.  Remember, giving one up creates a vacuum; something will fill it in.  You must direct that something to your own choosing.  If you rely on your psyche or personality to do it, you’ll just intensify a different rerun.   Break out!  Only you can do it, but you must want to do it.