The Security of our Routines

Daily routine. What is a daily routine? What is your daily routine? Possibly a day to day routine consists of waking up for work or school in the morning. You have breakfast, drive to your destination as you listen to your favorite talk show. While at work you spend the day at your desk minus when you escape for an hour for lunch. Finally, the work day is over and you come home where you cook dinner, do the dishes and finally flop down to watch a popular television series.

Give or take a little and this is the routine of most people. What does this routine have in common with everyone else’s routine? No, it is not the mundane commute to work or the hassle of doing the dishes but rather it is the sense of security. 

The main satisfaction most people receive from their daily routines is security. When we are enveloped within our everyday activities it acts as a form of shelter. Our worries and troubles are focused on deadlines for homework and we tend to feel a sense of contentment once all our emails are answered. 

We need to lay down the shield known as our daily routines and face the truth. There are bigger deadlines that stretch way beyond the realm of work and school. Various events threaten our lives every day yet are shrouded by the safety of our ritualized lives. 

Do we ever think about global climate change during our commute to work? Do we see hydro fracking as a threat to when dinner will be on the table? As we sit down on the couch to tune into our favorite tv show do we begin to think about the depletion of valuable ecosystems such as in the arctic and the rainforest?

Unfortunately, we do not share these thoughts unless the hydro fracking is in our backyards or unless the food we put on our table for dinner becomes a hazard to our health. This is why we need to fill out days more with concerns about the degradation of our earth.

The first way we can inflict change is through acknowledgment. We must acknowledge that although global climate change may not be apparent on our way to school tomorrow, it will become noticeable before we even know it. The next step is that we must incorporate our effort to aid the environment within our daily lives. If we ride a bike to work or spend a half an hour a day writing letters to politicians before we sit down to watch our tv show change can be made. Most importantly this change will be integrated within the safety of our routines and therefore will not pose a great threat to our regimens. If we integrate good deeds for the environment within our everyday lifestyle the change will be beneficial yet not an overwhelming task. We do not need to be radical treehuggers or hippies to influence change. We can take everything step by step and day by day. We can alter this planet for the better and yet still maintain a little of our safety net known as our “routines.”

Tara Byrne