The Value of Mundanity

“I have always been caught by the pull of the unremarkable, by the easily missed, infinitely nourishing beauty of the mundane.”

– Tana French

 

 

My baby nephew, Jack Jack, has a habit of sticking with one toy car. You could bring him an entire pile of nicer toy cars, and he will simply ignore them. And if you try to hand him one from the pile, he will savagely throw it away.

For him, the one toy car that he plays with, is everything. He would carry it in his little hand everywhere he goes. Oftentimes, too, you would find him in a prone position, like a sniper, intently focused on his favorite toy car as he rolls it back and forth on the floor.

He does this until he eventually loses that toy car, and then repeats the same habit with another one. 

 

 

 

 

I guess Jack Jack and I are similar in that we share the same love for the mundane. (This chemistry probably explains why, other than his parents, he would normally only let me pick him up and hold him). I too have my own versions of “toy cars” that I stick with. 

I’d order the same coffee at the same café every week. I’d have the same comfort meal of “nasi goreng pattaya” — a hearty fried rice dish that’s wrapped in an omelette — whenever I’m somewhere that has them in their menu. 

I’d cycle the same route nearly every day.

I’d carry the same notebook and black mechanical pencil in my pocket wherever I go.

I’d look for and wear the same kinds of clothing — usually a striped tee, a pair of slacks, and a long pair of black socks. I’d also wear the same black Converse leather sneakers wherever I go. And when they are finally worn out, I’d just replace them with the same kind. 

I’d listen to the same songs on repeat all day, until I eventually grow tired of them, and find a new set of songs to listen to on repeat. 

I could argue that having these sorts of mundane habits are beneficial for your productivity, in that it frees up your mental and emotional space for higher pursuits, like doing creative work — as opposed to using that space for obsessing over what to eat, what to wear, where to go, and what to listen to. 

But the truth is, even I couldn’t say that for sure. Coming from me, it would sound more like an excuse to justify my own weird habits, rather than being an actual fact.

I could, however, certainly say that I keep these habits, simply because they’re comforting. 

In a life that can be frighteningly unpredictable, it’s comforting for me to know that some things never change.

And in a world that constantly ropes us into thinking that happiness is in buying and having more, it’s comforting for me to know that I already have everything I need to feel fulfilled, and to have a good day. 

Life’s beauty can be found in the ordinary, more so than in the extraordinary. It is in the mundane, boring, and everyday things that we can truly find fulfillment. But tragically, these are the very things that we easily overlook and take for granted.

Meanwhile, life passes us by. And the older we get, the more we wonder why we haven’t gotten any happier.

Your mundane habits can be the things that actually ground you in the present moment, that remind you that life is happening right now in this moment, and not in some distant future or goal. 

It’s worth thinking back on your life. What are some of the mundane habits that you can learn to appreciate more of? What do your “toy cars” look like for you?