There are days I [can] go without coffee.
There are also days I am an absolute bear.
Usually the Bear Days coincide with the coffee-less days.
I’m no scientist, BUT…
I think it’s possible to *at least* make a hypothesis regarding the relationship between the two states of being.
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Those things that we do (or say or are known for) that are ‘our’ things — things that are, if not in and of themselves unique, are unique to US.
Perhaps it is a part of your routine. Do you *have to* floss after every meal?
Perhaps it is something you say. Is there are phrase or ‘ism’ you are known for?
Maybe your idiosyncrasy has to do with an aesthetic, like the exact shade of dark purple that MUST outline your lips or the constantly-laddered hose you wear. Maybe it’s more about something intrinsically YOU, like your half-guffaw shout-laugh or your smirk-faced eyebrow-raise.
(No, I did not mis-spell heaven.) 😉
The term haven has two standard definitions: {1} a place of refuge, and {2} a harbor.
Haven also has a connotation, which – while not a definition – people generally seem to accept as congruous with the term: calm.
Growing up, I did not have a lot of calm in my personal life; neither did I have a lot of physical spaces where I could escape the chaos of my environment and find calm. I did have people who provided a sense of calm, and with whom I felt a sense of relief – they were my refuge – and when each of them died, a piece of me did too: my great-grandmother (my mother’s grandmother) and my grandfather (my mother’s father).
I also found calm through reading. Books were a physical object I could hold and utilize as a mental escape; libraries – and, later, book stores – were actual locations I could escape to.
In early adulthood, I chose — as soon as was practically possible — to live by myself, so as to make my home space a haven. The house I live in now, with my spouse, continues to be one. I rarely invite anyone into my home space for precisely that reason: it is a place of calm, of rest; it is a refuge, a safe space, a very personal place.1
Less personal but still ‘mine’ (in a way) are the community spaces I’ve found over the years. A towne center that housed a Third Place — an open room filled with tables and chairs and occasionally music, a space that was available to anyone who needed a place to land, to read, to write, to meet, to relax — was a refuge when I was first married; these days it is outdoor spaces like parks and beaches, where walking the trails and climbing the rocks is way to both work my body and relax my mind.
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(or, in the UK: Heath Robinson Contraption)
A Rube Goldberg Machine refers to system that is overly complex in its approach to solving a simple problem. Basically, it is a design filled with chain-reactions and this-leads-to-that-leads-to-another-thing in excessivity; anyone who has filed an application for “good” life insurance has been through the paperwork version, and cartoonists — i.e., Rube Goldberg and Heath Robinson — made the idea humorous. (See illustration above.)
I’ve always heard the term used to describe overly complex sets of bureaucratic rules — why can’t they just make it simple? — but likewise understand the humor that comes with envisioning such ‘machines’. At the beginning of the movie Honey, I Shrunk The Kids, for example, we are treated to a complex chain-reaction machine in the inventor’s kitchen; mostly it makes a mess, but in theory it works to get the cat fed. Likewise, when cartoon characters go cannoning into one another causing a slide down a ladder by Character 1 to cause Character 2 to go cannoning into Character 3, who then goes flying through the air…
You get the picture.
A n y w a y
Previously unbeknownst to me, I have recently learned that there are actually people who build Rube Goldberg Machines. There are competitions around the concept, and one group of competitors teamed up with the band OK Go to create a music video depicting a long series of complicated chain reactions that ends with the group members getting sploshed.
I found this to be quite entertaining. Give it a watch…
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