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.
Read Full Post »
Heroes Not Zombies 