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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