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Authored by PRATHEEK PRAVEEN KUMAR. Comments welcome at prytheek@yahoo.com.
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VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF LIFE
“Variety's the very spice of life that gives it all its flavor [sic]” said William
Cowper, an English poet and hymnodist. One of the most popular poets of his time,
Cowper changed the direction of 18th century nature poetry by writing of everyday
life and scenes of the English countryside. Poets are a breed of extra-sensitive
people. They understand life in all its subtleties, because they have experienced and
‘lived’ life to its fullest. When William Cowper, a great poet, whom S.T. Coleridge
himself called "the best modern poet" feels so about life and its variety, what can I
do but concur? Without variety, life is bland. Following a routine, whatever the
benefits of it being time-tested, day after tiresome day, is disadvantageous and
should be avoided at all costs. Life sans variety is frankly not worth living. Even
nature knows it. A variety of genes in an organism enable it to adapt to changing
circumstances. Every organism, including humans by the way, seek to continue their
generation with the maximum chances to survive. And the instance of maximum
chance of survival coincides with higher adaptability, which corresponds to variety
in the gene pool. William Cowper also said, “The earth was made so various, that
the mind of desultory man, studious of change and pleased with novelty, might be
indulged”.
Variety in life makes it enjoyable. We see it all around us. Variety enables us
to pick and choose, a luxury which we would otherwise not have had. It relieves the
monotonous boredom of life. It is true in any field. I repeat, any field. “The variety
of all things forms a pleasure”, said Euripides who was the last of the three great
tragedians of classical Athens. From the sublime game of cricket to the sublime art
of essay-writing! Not only does variety have an aesthetic sense, or rather, beauty, but
it also enables us to increase our standard. For example, in cricket, a batsman
possessing a variety of shots, all around the wicket, aerial and along the ground
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possesses a much higher chance of survival and of scoring runs than one who goes
for only one shot, or more commonly, one type of shot. Adaptability is key; and for
adaptability, it is needed, absolutely needed, to have variety. Another example can
be made of essay writing. No one, not me at least, likes to read an essay which is
bland and lifeless. I think anyone who reads this will agree with me. A writer must
think of ways in which to make his\her essay interesting and what better way to
make it interesting than injecting variety to the essay in the form of idioms and
avoiding clichés?
“We need a variety of input and influence and voices. You cannot get all the
answers to life and business from one person or from one source”, said Jim Rohn,
an American entrepreneur, author and motivational speaker and whose life was a
typical rags to riches story. In the uncompromising and merciless world that we live
in these days, it is of utmost importance that we choose the best measure, the best
direction to follow. In the cut-throat competition, the dog-eat-dog type, which we
find encompassing the world today, a slight miscalculation or, more often, a lack of
means may cut short our chances. If one does not follow a life rich in variety, one
may fail to take advantage of certain circumstances, which may have otherwise
helped us, which we may rue later. To prevent such catastrophes from happening,
one should at all costs try to exercise variety in our lives. “In the time of your life,
live - so that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the
world, but shall smile to the infinite variety and mystery of it”, said William
Saroyan an Armenian-American dramatist and author.
So we see that having variety in our life is not only interesting but also
advantageous while compared with a monotonous life. A person with variety in his
life can be said to have a very fulfilling and satisfying existence. He wakes up every
day knowing that he will be living that day in a different way compared to other
days. He thus is buoyant. Variety thus improves the quality of life very much like
how spices improve the quality of our food. Our ancestors also had another use for
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spices. Spices were used in olden days to preserve food and we can see that variety
too preserves our life and makes it longer by infusing excitement and
unpredictability in our life. Unpredictability in small quantities is good as it
sprinkles a certain amount of zest and enjoyment in our lives and makes it radiant.
‘Aurea mediocritas’ is a Latin phrase that denotes ‘the golden mean’. It is meant to
convey a philosophy of not partaking too much in something. ‘Nec Dextrorsum, Nec
Sinistrorsum’ which means neither to the right nor to the left also means the same.
It means that people should neither veer too much to one side nor to another, but
must undertake to walk in a path which follows the Greek ideal of ‘moderation in
all things’. Failure to follow this ideal will be disastrous. Take a case study of
alcohol. A small amount of it everyday is said to be very beneficial according to
doctors. But take it in the form of a heavy dosage and the effects are not so benign.
So is the case in all things. We can also construe that too much of variety is not good
for our health, in the same way that too much of spice is not good!
In every field of life that we see, we see that variety plays a very important
role. Even in language. How can variety, I can hear a person ask, play an important
role in language? Well it’s fairly simple. A person with a good vocabulary can
articulate well, as different words have different shades of meanings, and thus
express himself without any hesitation or trouble. This is the reason why lawyers
need to have a good vocabulary; otherwise they may easily fall into legal pitfalls.
Good orators need to have a variety of words at their disposal. Words, especially in
the English language often can imply more than what they mean and the subtle
putting together of words, mainly adjectives to form coherent phrases or sentences
can often be hilarious, laughable or just plain funny. A case in point is the three
adjectives that I used towards the last of the previous sentence.
It has been thus seen that variety is important for any person in any walk of
life. It revitalizes the mind and makes life ‘worth living’ to say the least. People in all
walks of life have to try to include an element of variety so that their life becomes
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more fruitful and interesting. People should not live their lives according to
timetables. When one follows the same routine again and again one automatically
feels disinterested, as it is after all human nature to be disinterested when the same
old things happen again and again with no variation to occupy the mind. Some
people may say that it will be quite good if we are able to control our lives
completely, so that nothing untoward may happen. A rigidly controlled life with a
lack of variety is the model of this type of thinking. Shakespeare, makes his Gnaeus
Domitius Ahenobarbus say “Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite
variety”, while referring to Cleopatra and the charm she had on men in general and
General Antony in particular, in his well-known tragedy, Antony and Cleopatra.
The keyword here is ‘variety’. Shakespeare, an acknowledged expert on the varied
subtleties of human character, here himself acknowledges the importance of variety
in a person’s personality. I rest my case.
PRATHEEK PRAVEEN KUMAR
prytheek@yahoo.com
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