A Brief Meditation on Spontaneity

A couple of years ago, my Dad wrote a short story inspired by his image of a man, "Davey," watching TV when Jesus appeared before him and attempted to speak to him. Instead of turning off the TV and listening to what the Christ had to say, Davey craned his neck to try and see around this interruption.

The full story is worth a read, and it only costs 99 cents to buy!



This image of Davey craning his head to see around the Christ has stuck with me, though in a slightly modified, non-Christian sense: I think it's commonplace that people frequently miss out on "truly living" because they are distracted by things that are not really important. In many cases, folks would regularly admit that they waste a good deal of their time on this Earth--this is not a big secret I am exposing! (For my exploration of this topic and my strategy for dealing with this distraction, please see the previous blog post).

For this post, I would like to consider a different kind of distraction than TV or the black-hole-time-suck that is social media: the distraction of a healthy lifestyle.

To clarify: I of course advocate that folks make an effort to live a healthier lifestyle. I myself have recently been attempting to do things that are probably advisable for just about anyone:

• Eat healthy (lots of veggies, little sugar, reduced meat intake)
• Moderate exercise
• Enough sleep and regulated sleep cycle
• Meditation and good coping strategies for stress

Etc, etc. 

I can attest that these habits are helpful for at least one human; as I incorporate these habits into my life, I feel better. I am less tired (re. lazy) and therefore more active, social and content. I think its fair to say that my attempt to be healthier has helped me live a more happy and full life, and I can only imagine how much better I will feel if I'm able to sustain these healthy choices over the long term.

However, I should also mention that I can be a bit neurotic and even borderline obsessive compulsive. Once I get an idea into my head (e.g., spending an inordinate amount of time and energy every day trying to eat super-healthy), I can sometimes take it to the extreme until I burn out and, by the end of the day, I end up becoming like Davey watching TV with 5 empty bags of Doritos (ok, slight exaggeration), tired, sick, and not really by any stretch feeling truly "alive." So, that's obviously not helpful.

As I try to take on doing the things that are important to me in terms of becoming  a healthier person (which includes activities such as practicing violin every day) I have to come to grips with the fact that I'm risking missing out on cool events in the community (rock & roll concerts, socializing, etc.) because by the end of the day I am too tired. It's hard work being healthy--after reading for 2 hours, practicing violin for an hour, exercising for an hour, and spending hours making healthy food, etc., I don't particularly feel like going out and doing anything!

With this context, I'd like to suggest that sometimes these important healthy activities can themselves become a distraction from living life to its fullest. At the same time, to live life to its fullest I firmly believe you have to be as healthy as possible in mind, body, and spirit; it makes sense to spend a lot of time each day on activities which will maximize health so that you can feel well enough to enjoy life. Figuring out how to navigate this seeming paradox is all the more urgent due to the reality that the amount of things in the world which bring joy are seemingly infinite while our time on this earth has a very limited shelf life. 

I would like to suggest this: the healthy activities which I mentioned are important to regularly incorporate into our lives, but it's also important to be willing to kick all of those healthy activities to the curb for a day or two when the universe offers an opportunity to feel truly alive. A recent example from my personal life: I eschewed all of my healthy habits in order to enjoy an amazing night at a local music venue called "The Venue" to see a rock & roll show. This opportunity came about in a spontaneous manner--I hadn't planned on going to this show, but the opportunity arose when a friend told me about it and I thought it sounded fun. I stayed out way past my bedtime, probably damaged my hearing slightly from the high-decibel environment, messed up my sleep cycle for a day, drank too much, etc. But, it was an incredible show and I felt much more connected to the universe when rocking out to the Rutland supergroup "Monstrosity" than I ever have while steaming broccoli. I plan on repeating this ritual of going out to the the venue and having a blast regularly despite the fact that it does not cleanly fit into my priorities of living a "healthy lifestyle."

Note: while I could not find a "Monstrosity" website to include, as the group seems somewhat fluid and informal, I can at least link to one of the member's websites. That member was Tony Lee Thomas  --a really talented singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Check out his album on SoundCloud:

Of course, an argument can be made that there is a health benefit to socialization that outweighs the cost to physical health in the scenario I mentioned. But I'm sure you can imagine a different scenario that didn't center around socialization and still imagine temporarily setting aside your daily healthy rituals if an opportunity arose that gave joy or a sense of meaning, even if that opportunity wasn't, strictly speaking, "healthy."

Because of the organic, frequently unpredictable nature of our lives, we have to be open to the spontaneous as "life" is always going to offer itself in unpredictable, spontaneous ways. The healthy activities and habits we should all try to incorporate into our daily lives are important, but at the end of the day, these rituals are acts of preparation. We do these healthy things because we want to feel truly alive, and these rituals prepare us to enjoy life when the opportunity to "truly live' comes along. So, these activities are like studying for the highest-stakes test you can imagine: life truly lived. It would be a shame to miss the test because you couldn't stop studying. 

In the next blog post, I would like to talk about why everything in the first two posts is completely wrong because these "insights" are based upon false assumptions about our"locus of control."