I took this photo while standing on a cold, wet platform waiting for a train to take me to work.
This is not an unusual experience. It’s not a rare experience. It’s very easy to bury your head into your shoulders, stand and shiver, and just wish you were somewhere else.
This year I’ve been reading some contemporary French philosophers, Jean-Philippe Ravoux, Pierre Hadot, and Bertrand Vergely. I’ve not read much, but both in interviews they’ve given and in the few books of theirs which I’ve read, I’ve found that they all three mention two common concepts. The two concepts are captured by these two French words – “quotidien” and “emerveillement”.
Quotidien means daily, but not just in the sense of “daily paper”, or “daily bread”, but in the sense of the “everyday”, of daily life. You’ve probably read a lot about the importance of living in the present. It’s certainly a common theme in Eastern philosophy, but it’s also a very common theme in the work of Western self-help writers and psychologists. Both the concept of the present, and that of the “quotidien”, concentrate us on a period of time – the period of time in which we are most alive. I find the concept of the present a little tricky. It’s very hard to pin down. You only have to breathe out and the present has already become the past. So we tend to stretch the boundaries of the present outwards from a moment to a period of time lasting maybe a few minutes, or hours, or even a day or number of days. The more we stretch the boundaries though, the more what we call the present loses its power. I like the French term, “quotidien”. It’s a period of time I can grasp. It’s today. Every day. It’s the time period in which we are alive, our conscious time, the time when we can act.
The second word, “emerveillement”, is about an attitude towards something. It means a state of wonder, of marvel, even of amazement, or awe. Probably the best way to understand this is to think about the way children engage with the world. Young children find the world a fascinating place. Think of how much fun a child can have even with the packaging in which a present is given. The world really is an amazing place. Ceaselessly fascinating. It’s just that on a day to day basis we slip into autopilot, and as we stumble through our days like zombies, our lives literally pass us by.
So here’s the alternative. Today, this very day, let something catch your attention, and just pause for a moment and wonder. That’s what I did as I stood on that windy, rainy platform. I noticed the lights and the way they reflected on the concrete and the rails. I noticed the row of lamps on the opposite platform, and their reflections stretching into the distance. And I saw the green light glowing at the end of the platform, signalling GO. Green for go. Green, the signal to start. The day was beginning. Another amazing day.
Heroes Not Zombies 
This is a very powerful post – thank you for helping to translate some big and potentially difficult ideas into something we can put into practice today.
How true this is! And I love this shot. It’s all in how you frame things, which brings me to the use of a camera, and how it too, this recorder of the present and past, can also open one’s eyes. I find when I take my little digital along with me on a walk around town, I make it a point to take photos of things – anything that catches my eye. That’s the beauty of digital. I find the more I look the more I see, and the more i appreciate the everyday. Wonderful post on this fine day today!
I’ve often stopped to look at the raindrops / dewdrops sparkling on a spiderweb, or the frost glittering on the pavement, but it is sometimes difficult to notice such things in the dark mornings, and dreary weather.
One of my friends has a very young daughter, and at the moment her favourite word seems to be “Wow!”. She exclaims it with wide eyed excitement and enthusiasm at anything and everything, and she includes you in this by looking at you and then back to the item in question several times while she draws out the vowel.
Between your post, and her exclamations, I am reminded that there are wonderful things all around us, however mundane a place or practice might at first seem. I’ll be sure to note at least on wow-inspiring amazing thing today!
To be aware is to be alive!
Beautiful, Bob.
Exactly what my little Baby Goo-roo is teaching me “quotidien” .
To be present, to wonder and to look, look, look…
This is a lovely post. I’ve found since I started taking photos, that I do witness “now” in a different way; I frame the shot and put energy into capturing and learning from what I see, remaining mindful of sharing energetic space with time.
I only have to look at the faces of my kids to know that unless I pay close attention, the time of right now, and oh my gosh they’re beautiful, will pass quickly.
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