“Disruption” seems to be the latest business fad; if you’re not disrupting — taking risks, causing chaos and regularly failing — you may as well pack up and go home. Being neither a capitalistic mover nor shaker, I can’t offer an opinion on corporate change, but I will on personal change. We humans have evolved to be super-flexible, our survival having depended on our ability to change according to the environment and circumstances. That’s how humans, from the earliest times, were able to extend their range to the ends of the earth — fashioning clothes from animal skins to maintain body temperature in cold climates, making boats to migrate to new lands, harnessing the power of oxen to plow for our new-fangled agriculture. “Change or die” might well have been the motto of our species.
Now that most of us have more stability and are not constantly challenged by the pressures of a hostile environment, it’s easy to settle into routines — which can lead to inactivity and apathy. In order to not just survive but to thrive, we need to do what our hardy ancestors did: change. Me, I dread slipping into a routine-rut: getting up at the same time every day, hearing myself tell the same stories, paying the same bills year after year. If you empathize, here are some disruptive ideas to consider as we embark on the New Year:
Money
Try following libertarian Harry Brown’s advice: Pick an amount ($2, $5, $20) that you’re willing to simply let go of rather than argue over — if you picked $5, and realized the waiter overcharged a buck, make believe it’s OK and just pay it. Get a $10 roll of quarters from the bank and give them all away in the next hour. Outlaw pennies — leave those you receive in change.
Inner Life
Sit quietly without any stimulation, eyes closed, listening for the farthest sound. Start writing with the stem “I’m ready to …” for 15 minutes (no editing on the fly). Choose your own funeral music and record to a CD or flash drive (give to a younger friend with instructions).
Physical Life
Turn the shower on cold at the end. Wear no makeup, nothing to “improve” your looks. Time how long you can hold your breath. Fast for 24 hours. Go bowling. Walk in the rain. Eschew elevators and escalators for stairs. Tape two mirrors at right angles and see yourself as others see you (that is, not left-right reversed as in a regular mirror — see image above).
Relating
Learn the name and birth town of one stranger per day for the next week. Take turns at word association with a friend — no pauses! Walk blind for 500 steps: eyes closed, holding hands with your bestie. Ask the next telemarketer how their day is going. Write a letter to the editor.
Stuff
Purge shelves and walls of any trinkets or art that you haven’t noticed for a week. Store unused stuff in taped-up boxes with a note, “Dump on January 1, 2017,” as you consider Kris Kristofferson’s line: “Freedom’s just a name for nothing left to lose.”
Night Life
Change your digital clock or watch to 24-hour time. Set your alarm for 0300 hours and go for a nightwalk. Follow the phases of the moon over the next month. Sleep in a different room or on the floor. Use the word “crepuscular.” If you live near city lights, promise yourself, sometime in the next six months, you’ll see the Milky Way as our ancestors did, from a dark site on a moonless night.
Barry Evans (barryevans9@yahoo.com) resolves to purge in 2016: beliefs, guilt and stuff, including old T-shirts.
This article appears in Top 10 Stories of 2015.
“Now that most of us have more stability and are not constantly challenged by the pressures of a hostile environment”
I love/hate it when older people say stuff like this. It demonstrates their disconnect with labor vs. leisure in the now, and basically tells me they’re emotionally and (especially) financially comfortable. Sorry, barry, we don’t have it easier nor are we more stable. A homeless person in the past could grab fish or small game on the fly, build a shelter wherever and however they chose, etc. etc. etc. I suggest you really brainstorm how things “used to be” and the plight of the everyday person outside the context of modern society while genuinely in the context of life on earth. Go to Detroit and tell the ghetto kids they’ve got it easy. Not to be foreboding, and I don’t wish any bad on you at all, but I’d be curious how somebody like you would rant philosophies if a series of paperwork/computer snafu’s left you bankrupt with no regular or foreseeable income, and your girlfriend dumped you for a younger guy.
Ecclesiates 1
1 The words of the Teacher, a son of David, king in Jerusalem:
2“Meaningless! Meaningless!”
says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”
3What do people gain from all their labors
at which they toil under the sun?
4Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.
5The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises.
6The wind blows to the south
and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
ever returning on its course.
7All streams flow into the sea,
yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
there they return again.
8All things are wearisome,
more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,
nor the ear its fill of hearing.
9What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
10Is there anything of which one can say,
“Look! This is something new”?
It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time.
11No one remembers the former generations,
and even those yet to come
will not be remembered
by those who follow them.
Ever consider another philosophy? Maybe the old one is getting worn.