“When you feel lost in the world, there is some joy to be gleaned from exact imitation of familiar things”

It may prove to be the longest headline above any editorial in 2005, but whether or not, let’s talk about the surest path to all that is best in life; Routine.

We all have those little daily habits that keep us from going entirely bonkers. And while they comfort us with domestic security, they also mark us out as familiar, even friendly figures, to people whom otherwise have no idea who we are or what we stand for. The man we see walking his dog past our house, as we draw back the curtains to greet the day. The same shuffling walk, hands in pockets, we’d know him anywhere, though in fact we do not really know him at all. And the day he doesn’t come by we vaguely wonder if anything has happened to him or his dog.

The routine of life can give us a sense of place and identity. It can of course also entrap us and prevent us from being our true selves. “Man and dog” can equally well be “Dog and man”. Who is taking who for a walk? (Oh, all right then, “Whom”) The man or woman who daily tends to their partners’ needs may be doing so because they feel they have no choice, anything for a quiet life. But if daily routine bears the stamp of love, then we have struck a rich seam indeed.

Without love, even the routine of religious ritual, becomes a charade. Without love routine and ritual ensnare us in meaningless conformity, leading to a loss of self-worth or a parade of self-righteousness. But with love, routine can reveal the riches of a so-called ordinary life.

At the recent clergy study-day on the document, “Cherishing life”, participants were asked to consider the nations moral “state of play” and the causes of it. It’s a big field of course, but The Voice would like to suggest that one of the big lacks in modern life is the disregard shown to the routine and the ordinary. The cult of celebrity is no longer a mere talking point, but a disease of almost epidemic proportions.

The unease and restlessness at the heart of all that is human, is played upon by powerful forces, crudely and blatantly commercial. Increasingly, people are encouraged to want something “different,” to move nervously and greedily from one “high” to the next. The heart that is thus unsettled never grows to know the true potential of human life. Far from being the dull and boring thing it is sometimes portrayed as, routine gives us the time and the space to savour what is there. The heart of our own existence is a very good place to take off our shoes, for we are indeed on “Holy Ground.” We are in ourselves, a very good reason to “cherish life”.