Happy Solstice, all! Remember, axial tilt is the reason for the season.
As you may have noticed, the world neither ended nor underwent any great immediate transition on 2012-12-21. However, it still may be useful to take the Mayan calendar flipping as the opportunity for a sort of New Year's Resolution on a grand scale -- a New Era Resolution, if you will. I talked about this, and about related ideas on magic (in the ritual sense) and change at an event last weekend with Evolver Baltimore. Here's a video of my talk:
Now, speaking of change...
A few days ago I was at my local Kohl's, finishing up my minimally socially acceptable holiday shopping. I decided, while I was at it, to pick up a new pair of blue jeans.
I don't always wear pants, but when I do, I prefer blue jeans. I always feel like I'm going to tear up a pair of dress slacks; and khakis are just godsawful, stylistically and socially (as are the polo shirts that often go with them). I like how the blue of blue jeans matches the blue of a Zen monk's samu-e, how both are indigo-dyed working clothes. (Yes, jeans and samu-e both come in other colors, but blue is the most common.)
And so I've gotten into a habit. I've worn Levi's since high school. It was very easy: I knew I could pick up a pair of 505s or 501s, 31 inch waist, 30 inch inseam, and that they would fit. Didn't even try them on. It was one less thing to have to expend mental energy on.
The past few years I've noticed that my jeans don't seem to hold up as well as they used to. The knees get worn out earlier. And this time, pawing through the piles of Levis in the bins at Kohl's, it seemed to me that the fabric was noticeably thinner than the pairs I have now. And this was with a higher price.
So I did something I haven't done in over 25 years: I bought a pair of Lee jeans. And this meant having to try on a couple different pair to see what fit -- which, if you're as weird as I am, includes throwing a couple of front kicks in the fitting room. I don't like wearing pants that I can't kick someone in the chin while wearing them.
It's not any sort of earth-shattering change, obviously, but I think it's breaking one of the longest behavioral streaks I've ever had, and prompted a little thought about the nature of habits. The world is such a complex place that it's not necessarily a bad thing to put some decisions on auto-pilot. We sometimes talk about "mindfulness" as if every thing we did should be the focus of intense thought...but have you ever noticed the wardrobe-simplifying decisions made by Zen monks? Black robes and maybe a kesa for formal, blue samu-e for working, and that's about it. Seems to me it's not necessarily a bad thing to make a decision once and stick to it, so long as 1) it's not an important one, and 2) circumstances don't change. What brand pants you wear is certainly not an important decision; and here, when the quality changed, I was able to change my behavior with it.
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