The primal urge of the human psych to perpetually seek and embrace
the thrill of the unknown is what the adventure industry thrives on – countless
colourful brochures promising scenes and sights never seen before, adrenalin
rushing, danger hugging expeditions that promise to transform your outlook on life
and heart-stopping experiences that eventually become thrilling anecdotes
around dinner parties – but if it wasn’t for the predictability of familiar
surroundings and routines that we can safely and snugly return to each time, every
adventure we venture out on would lose its rosy glow.
No matter how bored I am at home and itching to do something,
anything exciting, I have learnt never to scoff at or underestimate the power of
predictable routines and familiar surroundings. That is what keeps us sane,
grounds us and recharges us. Ever been out shopping all day or had a long and
tiring day at work, the comfort of coming home and sinking into your favourite
chair, drinking tea just how you like it out of your favourite mug, now nothing
can beat that feeling of familiar
comfort.
I recently attended an awareness program on Autistic
Spectrum Disorders and heard the facilitator go on and on about how predictable
routines and familiar surroundings were so important to people with autism - but
are they not important to all of us, autistic or not? Surely seeking order cannot
be the criteria of a ‘disorder’ - and I have always been very skeptical of definitions of what is normal and what is not, who defines it matters a lot - what is normal to me might be questionable to you, its all relative (see my previous post on relativity).
And interior designers, in an attempt to standout from
the rest, often seek the interesting, the bold and the fascinating in their choice of
furniture and artifacts, but if they do not balance it out with what the homeowner
holds to be familiar and predictable, they fail miserably in creating a space
that the homeowner can truly relate to and relax in. Homes are personal spaces
and need to be dotted with furniture and pieces that are familiar, perhaps
handed down from parents, perhaps bought from an unknown shop in an unknown alley on one of their adventure
travels, perhaps a present from a special person in their lives – all homes need a stamp of predictable familiarity to be truly home.
