Between Regularity and Monotony

The last day of the long 6-day holiday. As I tidied up the house, I looked back on each day of the break.

Each day of the holiday was quite regular. I wake up between 6:30 and 7 in the morning. I make a phone call with my girlfriend, then take breakfast out of the fridge and heat it up. I read a book I’ve been wanting to read, and when I get tired of it, I tidy up the house. For lunch, I make something from what’s in the fridge. … If I have plans in the evening, I go out, and around 11 at night I get sleepy and go to bed. It’s something like that.

Thinking about it, I seem to have lived much more regularly since I started living alone. It’s probably because there are now more things I have to do on a regular basis, and I have to handle them entirely by myself. Washing dishes, vacuuming, mopping, folding blankets, … household chores tend to be, for the most part, regular tasks.

I like living regularly. It gives me energy in the process of finishing each day’s tasks. I can get my body moving right away, without needing to sprawl on the bed agonizing over what to do today. So this change that came from living alone feels very positive to me.

But if there’s something that differs from regularity by only a hair’s breadth, it would be monotony. If I try too hard to live regularly, I might end up repeating each day’s life without any purpose. I don’t like that kind of characterless life. I prefer a life with change and a sense of purpose. I want to use the energy I gain from regularity to bring about change and achieve the purpose of my life.

This reminds me of the time I traveled all over Japan by Shinkansen. Back then, I stopped by many of Japan’s regional cities. As is probably true of regional cities in Korea as well, life in Japan’s regional cities tends to be monotonous. In some places, life continues in what feels like near-grayscale. There’s an AEON mall in the center of the city, and people drive around in kei cars, repeating the same daily life over and over. Only the location differs; the pattern of life is almost the same everywhere. On the other hand, some places have a clear sense of purpose. Some are devoted heart and soul to udon, or have old houses preserved intact along their streets. There was even a place where the street trees in the city center had grown so tall that they cast shade even over the roadway. The images of the cities that had character still come to mind even now. As for the cities without character, I feel like I’ve almost forgotten even their names.

Living regularly, but not monotonously. I’m jotting this down briefly so I can recall it whenever my life starts to feel monotonous.