Things We Do Without Thinking

We save energy every day doing many things by rote.  From flushing the toilet to locking the door, much of our life is routine that we can do on autopilot. If I asked you what foot you put forward to go down the stairs, would you be able to answer definitively? Probably not, but you do it confidently without a second thought. A daily or familiar commute becomes so habitual that we can arrive at our destination not fully aware of how we got there. There are so many demands on our time and attention that we are thankful for the thoughtless tasks that provide a comforting routine.

Yesterday’s inspirational reading included the passage: “I can will it, but I can’t do it. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it. I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.”

I could identify with that, for some of the bad that I do is purely from habit and habits, despite desire, are very hard to change.  Some of those habits are things I do by rote. I think that we, as a people, also identify with those words.  We have allowed some disturbing norms to creep into our society, norms that have enabled us to do things such as walk past a homeless person as though they are invisible. These are not necessarily the actions we might truly want, but something has gone wrong deep within our society and it is getting the better of us.

The complex issues of economic and social equity seem to live in a no man’s land in between the two political parties. Unfortunately there is not one magic cure for all of the ills in the headlines. I don’t believe stopping busses is the answer but I don’t know what is. I do know that when something happens to challenge common chores in our own lives, say a temporary injury or even the aging process, we make necessary adjustments until new habits become comfortable and our new norm. I’m going to pick one of the challenging problems from the list of poverty, illiteracy, homelessness, violence, and injustice, and think about my current rote response and what small action I might take. I’ll see if I can follow through so that perhaps one day, that positive action will become one that I make without thinking.

Marilyn