The banality of life

The end of the year holidays are behind us. Christmas and the New Year – we all have celebrated these days, or many of us have. Most then celebrate Christmas the 25 and 26th of December; others, like many Russians, do it the 7th and 8th of January. In Spain and other countries they celebrate also Epiphany on the 6th of January, which is especially for children. Without a doubt in other countries they have their own around the end of the year celebrations and traditions as well. But then it’s over and we have turned back to the daily routine. I guess that most readers of this blog have even forgotten already these days of celebration and relaxation, when they read this blog.

So we are again in the daily rut. Banality reigns again, for highlights are the exception. Otherwise they wouldn't be highlights. We go to the office, park our cars, do our shopping, clean the windows and peel the potatoes. Banality. Is it banality? What is banal wouldn’t be banal or it has happened that sociologists have studied it and have written articles and books about it; and photographers have photographed it. I, too, regularly take photos of “banal” objects and events, for I think that also the banal is interesting. And also in some blogs I have written about it. Why gets banality so much attention? Because actually nothing is banal, even if it seems so at first sight. For you can see the ordinary things, the everyday events and the drag of daily life also in another way: These so-called banal routine activities just sustain our lives. They keep life going. You can see the routine as the stream of life. Then the “obstacles” in the stream that brighten and break the life are as rocks and islands in a river, bridges that connect the banks, and whirlpools that you have to sail around: They symbolize the peaks and lows of our lives. They break the stream and so the banality. As a skipper you try to avoid them or they are just your target where you want to moor and stay for some time. Therefore you can say that the banal is the foundation of our life activities. Without doing the banal you cannot live the highlights, and without the banal there’ll be no setbacks. Banality is important!

That we can call the daily stream of life banal, says a lot about life today, I think, for I wonder whether there has always been such a “banal” stream of life. In a sense it is a recent phenomenon, for in the past life was so full of risks and unexpected happenings that it was hardly possible to talk of routine, and also many normal daily activities lacked routine. Illness, death, accidents, war, hold-ups, sudden meetings (note that nowadays we call up when you want to meet someone, but till not so long ago you just walked or travelled to his or her house without giving notice that you would come) were once integrated in daily life. Also, for instance, the work of a carpenter or smith was not routine. A big part of life was like a whirlpool. But medicine, social order, technology and so on have embanked the life stream and brought it under control. The wild water became a peaceful flow and sailing became routine. Banality set in and it became more and more exceptional that the routine was broken. And so banality became a characteristic of modern society. However, as you know now, nothing is banal. Enjoy it!

P.S. A few days after I had written this blog, I discovered that taking banal photos in the way I do has even a name: Deadpan photography. https://www.nyfa.edu/student-resources/what-is-deadpan-photography/