Philosophizing

I've been kicking this idea around in my head for a while now. For some reason, humanity has a need to classify, organize, label, and qualify just about everything we can get our brains around. Like most humans, I am plagued/blessed with this addiction/desire. Also like most humans, I have been known to apply this to subjects that are probably far too broad or vague to be effectively broken down. My latest attempt at this involves the broadest and vaguest of philosophical subjects: Life.

I'm proposing that everything in a person's life - every event, emotion, job, responsibility, thought, action, and so on - can be placed on a sliding scale that is defined by three simple but overlapping areas. At one end of the spectrum is the most unfortunate but ultimately undeniable aspect of life: Pain. To quote the Dread Pirate Roberts, "Life is pain, highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something." Pain, of course, has its own mini-spectrum, from the unspeakable and soul-crushing tragedies of life on one end to the discovery that your VCR failed to tape the series finale of "The West Wing" on the other end. Massive or tiny, you can't get away from it. This life is going to hurt.

At the opposite end of the spectrum is the category that, without Pain drawing it into sharp relief, would probably be a whole lot less spectacular. That would, of course, be joy. And there is one hell of a lot of joy to be had in this life, and there is a similarly sliding scale within the category, from the small joy of finding out that someone you know has the series finale of "The West Wing" on their TIVO to any of the countless joys that mark the best days of our lives. For the purposes of semantics, I'm going to go ahead and concede that "joy" and "beauty" are equally deserving names for this category, so let's not split hairs about it.

This less-than-groudbreaking opening brings me to the middle of the spectrum, the often-overlooked category that, the more I think about it, probably accounts for as much of life as joy and pain combined. Between the poles of the high and low points of life you'll find one thing: maintenance. I know, it's not flashy, and it doesn't have a lot of teeth, but that's almost the point. I feel pretty safe saying that about half of our lives consist of maintenance. Life has a lot of stuff in it, and that stuff - mental health, physical fitness, house, family, friends, car, finances, lawnmower, bathroom sink, e-mail account, table lamp, ice cube tray - must be taken care of constantly. The highs and lows of pain and joy may come and go (hopefully the joy sticks around for a while, or makes repeat visits), but there is always maintenance to be done.

Being in the middle, maintenance has its own spectrum merging with pain at one end and joy at the other. Some maintenance is downright painful. For instance, I find it relatively painful to dust. I don't know why, because it's not actually that hard, but I just don't like dusting. Family maintenance, as everyone with a family knows, can be pretty painful as well. On the other end - and I think this is key - are the acts of maintenance that also happen to bring us joy. Reading, which sharpens your intellect and probably improves your mental health, can be pretty joyful. Same with physical exercise, although some of you might gain more joy out of dusting than jogging. I can respect that.

The main point is that while the activites on the spectrum are relatively variable, the spectrum itself is not. Your life will be filled with a combination of joy, pain, and maintenance. I have yet to come up with anything that doesn't fit into one or more of these three categories.

What does this all add up to? I'm not sure at this point. Remember, philosophers offer no guarantees on any of their pronouncements, so if you find this formulation incorrect or unnecessary, please feel free to hack Blogger's servers and replace my above ramblings with your own. I think such an activity would, for you, qualify as joy with a small hint of maintenance.