VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF LIFE
The meaning of the term “Variety is the spice of life” means that “variety of new and exciting experiences make life interesting and enjoyable”. The phrase,” Variety is the spice of life” was probably coined to express how variety if added in our lives could have the affect of a spice and enhance our everyday existence. Variety does to our lives the same thing that spice does to food. It makes it more fun, more interesting, more meaningful.
Our food and dishes becomes tasty and palatable because of the different spices that is used while making it. Without such variation in spices, even the best food would sometimes appear to be lacking flavor or tasteless. Similarly, our life loses all its charms and becomes burdensome, in the absence of variety or changes. This world is a state upon which the drama of life is played by men and women. It is a very interesting drama. That is why nobody, however, miserable, likes to leave this world. This drama is so gripping because the scenes are changing every minute. Light changes into darkness; childhood changes into old age; life changes into death; dry seeds change into lovely tall trees and rosy lips and cheeks change into wrinkled faces. Change or variety is a part of life. In fact, it is variety only that adds flavour to life. Our mind feels bored and fatigue if it repeatedly does the same job again and again. Distancing away from daily job for some time, and resorting to some new activities make life worth living. Long period of monotonous tasks would make life equally intolerable even in the midst of continuous joys and pleasure. In order to achieve happiness and prosperity in life , the variety in the form of work and leisure time is necessary. Thus, in all areas of life, the craving for variety is universal.‘Variety is the spice of life’ is a true maxim. Life would have been dull and dry, dismal and dark, ‘darkness’; ‘up’ has no meaning without ‘down’; ‘white’ has no meaning without ‘black’; ‘love’ has no meaning if there is no ‘hatred’. Pleasure and pain would similarly be meaningless if they refer to an unchangeable state. A man who has never seen poverty, cannot sing the blessings of prosperity. It is, therefore, variety, alone that makes life spicy and enjoyable. Any action, however interesting at first, becomes monotonous in the long run. Take the case of executioner. When he hangs a man for the first time, he is badly shaken at the idea of putting a matter of routine with him. He hangs a man as disinterestedly as somebody hangs a picture on the wall. In fact, any activity in life becomes boring and tiring if there is no variety in it. The variety of opinions, variety of experiences and the variety of lifestyle made the development of our civilization possible. Had there been no variety in life, our lives would have been monotonous: filled with boredom.Different flavors are needed for the different dishes. Otherwise the same flavor looses its taste after sometime because the variety of spices makes the food eatable.
Similarly variety is needed in every sphere of life. The same routine life of the family like going to job coming back home and doing household work makes life monotonous and we lose our creativity in life. There should be some changes in the lifestyle of people. When we engage in the monotonous work continuously for several hours and days, we feel very tired. We should have some break to carry on the life afresh. Engaging ourselves in other than our routine work entertains the mind and provides opportunities to refresh us. Change always brings happiness and happiness always makes the people lively. We may go to the hill stations and other worth seeing places of our interest which we can afford. Such changes in life make the life charming and happy and the variety fills our hearts with joy and pleasure.
Variety, therefore, is an indispensible part of life. Journey of our civilization from caveman to modern day human became possible only because of variety. For example, Thomous Edison invented electric bulb. Though it was a marvellous invention, scientists however, were not satisfied with it. Hence they made amendments in its shape and functions. Consequently, they developed more sophisticated forms of electric bulbs today we have. Further, it is because of variety that Will Durant preferred to be a philosopher, while John Keats loved composing poetry. This clearly illustrates the importance of variety in life.
As such, the world would have experienced a standstill in the absence of variety. Growth and development of human culture and society would have been impossible. There would have been no joy, no colour to life, had there been no variety in life. Thus, it becomes evident that variety makes the life interesting and worth living.Change has its own thrill and delight. Look at nature. Does it not undergo a change every moment? Everything is changing. Every moment there is a change. The sun rises and sets; the stars shine and disappear; autumn changes into spring and summer changes into winter, flowers bloom and wither away; barren and infertile lands change into smiling, fluttering fields; day change into night and night change into day. The change in the universe and the nature is so sure and so constant that it has to changes into day. The change in the universe and the nature is so sure and so constant that is has to be accepted what change is the law of nature and variety is the spice of life. Variety in life is, in fact, a biological and psychological necessity. Life cannot grow or develop properly if there is no variety or change in it. No knowledge or pleasure is possible if life is unchanging or monotonous. Variety in our lives does not necessarily mean that we go about making drastic changes. That would be disastrous at best.
When children study a particular subject over a period of time they get bored. A good way to keep the child’s interest up would be to introduce some variety. A picture book or a game that teaches the child while he plays would be a good way to make him learn.
The youth are probably the most active. That is in part because at this stage in ones development one is more open to change, more open to learn new things and more open to experiment. Adults have a lesson to learn from the youth.
One might get old physically but if the heart is young then the body will follow and try to keep pace with it. So what can keep the old, young at heart? The oldies should engage ln new activities. Going for a walk day after day could get really boring. One would see the same faces and the same surroundings. Instead one could go swimming, or join a yoga class, maybe.
Many oldies who have joined dance classes have found that they have brought back the missing zing in their lives. Learning a new activity is not just fun it gives you the opportunity to make new friends.
Just like a spice could ruin food if it is used in excess similarly variety could ruin our lives if we started applying it indiscriminately. Imagine a scenario where parents decide that they are fed up with each other and want to try new partners.
Although this might sound interesting and exciting to them, it would be morally unethical and would damage the fabric of their family’s existence. However that does not mean that they must lead a lackluster life. They could introduce variety by making some changes. Instead of eating dinner every day, day after day with the family they could opt once in a way to go out for a candlelight dinner.
Instead of watching a movie with the family every Sunday they could go out for a small excursion. Introducing variety in ones life does not have to be expensive. You just have to put your mind to it. As a family if you put your heads together you will be amazed at the suggestions your kids could come up with to make your weekends exciting. When one leads an exciting life there will be no room for either depression or boredom.
You will wake up each morning looking forward to a different day. So live life to the fullest. Experiment and innovate and you will find that variety can really spice up your life. Love of variety should, however, not be pushed too far. Too much of everything is bad. Happiness lies in the golden mean. Too many spices only spoil the taste. We should, therefore, welcome variety but we should not be crazy for it.
