The Structure of Our Lives: A Philosophical Inquiry

Until last week I hadn’t thought much about how our lives are structured, even though most of us clearly follow a set routine.

We wake at a certain hour, eat our meals at about the same time each day, and our free time is scheduled around our obligations.  Ask anyone who keeps a calendar of their appointments.  But for the past three days I’ve had no appointments.  For me that’s a blessing.

Why do our lives have to be so scheduled?  I have sometimes asked myself why do I have to eat breakfast before nine am when I’m on vacation?  After all, I’m on VACATION.  I should be able to eat breakfast any time I like.  The answer, of course, is that the tour company is picking up our entire group at nine am, and if they wait for stragglers all of us could be sitting around until noon.

This sentiment was captured years ago when Mel Brooks made a film called, “If It’s Tuesday It Must Be Belgium.” The film was likely inspired by a cartoon in the New Yorker with that same caption that caricatured American tourists reading a tour schedule, oblivious to the surrounding charm of a quaint European village. Point taken.  Maybe we all need more unstructured time to truly enjoy our lives.

But, for me, it’s Monday and time to write my blog.  Though I would vastly prefer to have it entirely written by Sunday evening, I seem to do my best work only to meet deadlines – not to exceed them.  (Perhaps this is a carryover from my school days when I always thought, “If there’s no test, why study?”)

I will admit that we do have to create structure in order to organize a group or to accomplish certain goals.  For example, try driving a car where there is no structure established by roads, signs, and painted lines.  You won’t drive as far.

But even so, in considering my current appointment-free schedule, I’m appreciating that in many cases structure is unnecessary.  Sometimes it’s easier just to enjoy life without planning every minute.  Especially for kids.

So, I suggest that we consciously employ structure as a tool, but take a vacation from it as frequently as we reasonably can.

It’s a lot more relaxing.

Whew!  I’m finished.

Alan