On Habits, Routines &c.
Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to Vine Utley in 1819 in response to the doctor's inquiry about the history of his physical habits. I think these are worth attention, as I find myself so often seeking to assert a degree of normalcy and routine into an otherwise improvised existence. Jefferson, according to his letter, slept from five to eight hours a night with variations, in his words "according as my company or the book I am reading interests me." He added that he never went to bed without "reading of something moral, whereon to ruminate in the intervals of my sleep." This leaves us to wonder if he ever ruminated on the morality of owning slaves. The answer is yes, but that's an entirely seperate consideration.
Next, Jefferson wrote that "whether I retire early to bed or late, I rise with the sun." Herein lies a challenge to those of us who would seek to adopt the habits of what Jefferson termed the "hard student." I like this idea. I reminds me of Henry Rollins and the whole "part animal, part machine" ethic, postindustrial identity crises notwithstanding. Waking up with the sun is no small task, regardless of whether you own slaves or not, and you've got to respect him for being able to assert at age of seventy-six that "I am again a hard student."
Once he got up, Jefferson would engage in a habit that further tests our commitment to routine as a source of health and vitality. He soaked his feet in cold water, every morning, "for sixty years past." To this habit, Jefferson attributed the fact that he had been "fortunate...in the article of health." That is committment. Think how easy it us for us to stand groggily under a warm stream of pressurized water, as steam fills the bathroom and NPR delivers the news of the day, to take pills for ailments rather than change the habits that bring them on in the first place. How soft are we by comparison to the Jeffersonian example of a "hard student?"
As to diet, Jefferson "lived temperately, dining on little animal food...as a condiment to vegetables, which constitute my principal diet." He went on, "I double, however, the doctor's glass and a half of wine, and even treble it with a friend." Good advice. Eat less dead animals, and drink twice more than health professionals recommend.
As the establishment of a "daily routine" is something we all try to implement and negotiate given the constant flux of our day-to-day demands as "flexible" workers, students, parents, &c., I find Jefferson's routine comforting, and something worth aspiring toward. It is representative of the "simpler life" that has long since been commodified, smartly packaged and marketed to post-industrial consumers in ways that confound our very ability to realize this condition. It may be worth considering the establishment of routines that we don't feel the need to escape from when the corporate masters let us off our leashes every now and again. It's not easy, obviously, but the operative word is "hard" in Jefferson's characterization of "the habits of a hard student."
And so I'm left to wonder whether this electronic pressure release valve will become a habit, and I guess in writing this I've challenged myself to make it so. While I doubt I'll write every day, I'll strive for some rhythmic regularity, and try to develop myself in the process. Like so many bloggers who've started with high hopes, like so many resolutions of fitness and gym memberships that have lapsed as a result of the basic inability to establish the habit of engagement, my first move is optimistic.
Next, Jefferson wrote that "whether I retire early to bed or late, I rise with the sun." Herein lies a challenge to those of us who would seek to adopt the habits of what Jefferson termed the "hard student." I like this idea. I reminds me of Henry Rollins and the whole "part animal, part machine" ethic, postindustrial identity crises notwithstanding. Waking up with the sun is no small task, regardless of whether you own slaves or not, and you've got to respect him for being able to assert at age of seventy-six that "I am again a hard student."
Once he got up, Jefferson would engage in a habit that further tests our commitment to routine as a source of health and vitality. He soaked his feet in cold water, every morning, "for sixty years past." To this habit, Jefferson attributed the fact that he had been "fortunate...in the article of health." That is committment. Think how easy it us for us to stand groggily under a warm stream of pressurized water, as steam fills the bathroom and NPR delivers the news of the day, to take pills for ailments rather than change the habits that bring them on in the first place. How soft are we by comparison to the Jeffersonian example of a "hard student?"
As to diet, Jefferson "lived temperately, dining on little animal food...as a condiment to vegetables, which constitute my principal diet." He went on, "I double, however, the doctor's glass and a half of wine, and even treble it with a friend." Good advice. Eat less dead animals, and drink twice more than health professionals recommend.
As the establishment of a "daily routine" is something we all try to implement and negotiate given the constant flux of our day-to-day demands as "flexible" workers, students, parents, &c., I find Jefferson's routine comforting, and something worth aspiring toward. It is representative of the "simpler life" that has long since been commodified, smartly packaged and marketed to post-industrial consumers in ways that confound our very ability to realize this condition. It may be worth considering the establishment of routines that we don't feel the need to escape from when the corporate masters let us off our leashes every now and again. It's not easy, obviously, but the operative word is "hard" in Jefferson's characterization of "the habits of a hard student."
And so I'm left to wonder whether this electronic pressure release valve will become a habit, and I guess in writing this I've challenged myself to make it so. While I doubt I'll write every day, I'll strive for some rhythmic regularity, and try to develop myself in the process. Like so many bloggers who've started with high hopes, like so many resolutions of fitness and gym memberships that have lapsed as a result of the basic inability to establish the habit of engagement, my first move is optimistic.
posted by MK | 1:51 PM
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