19 No Reason Whatsoever

I love learning new words. And it only took 2 paragraphs from today's Good Enough entry to teach me a new word. 

Hyper-instrumentalization. The obsession with use. 

"It's a symptom of the pragmatism that has wound its way into almost every part of American culture. How useful was your day?" (p 110) 

This raised an interesting question for me: do I ever do anything I'm not good at or for no good reason? 

I've already told you that I'm an over-achiever by nature and nurture here, so of course, I don't! And I have inherited the competition gene from both of my parents (though each would say the other is more competitive!). 

I suppose that without even realizing it, I have fallen into the habit of hyper-instrumentalization -- thinking that everything I did needed to be done well and have some purpose to it. 

But I do have a playfulness streak in me - a streak that I think has gotten stymied in the last couple of years for any number of reasons. 

In fact, not long ago, I was reading a book with some friends, and one of the chapters was about the spiritual discipline of playfulness. And I puzzled over what silly, playful thing I could do on my own. 

And then I remembered that I have some friends who adopt street cats. I had previously drawn portraits of their cats with their names in fancy cat-themed scrawl. And my friends framed those portraits and hung them above their food bowls, six inches off the floor, in the corner of their dining room!!!  

Well, it occurred to me that they had adopted a new cat, and I was behind in my commissioned portraits! (I use that term very loosely!) 

So that very night, I pulled out my sketchpad, pencils, and markers, and scrolled through my phone to find pictures of the cat, and got to work, sketching away. 

It was so silly and delightful that I decided that (of course!) I should ALSO sketch portraits of my friends, so they can hang those up too! 

And since I know you're dying to see the pictures, here you go: 

Cat portraits to hang over their food bowls. Does it get any more absurd, really? 

Probably not. 

But what joy I experienced simply in the trying, knowing that what came out may not be high quality, but that my friends would love it anyway. 

It turns out being silly and playful comes a lot more naturally for me when other people are involved. 

In fact, after chatting about this very subject (playfulness and absurdity) with another friend who says he excels at making irresponsible and silly decisions, I may just have found my spirit guide to shedding my habit of hyper-instrumentalization. 

Blessed are you who see the art in absurdity. Because when you think about it, life is unexpectedly and terribly and wonderfully absurd. So why don't we just embrace it? (p 113) 

Pastor Allison 

I'm curious: 

What's the most absurd thing you've done lately?  If you can't think of anything, what about asking a silly friend to do something absurd with you? 

I have to say my perfect recipe for absurdity is a group of friends and one of the antique stores here in Portsmouth. There is no limit to the odd, silly, or bizarre things we can discover!