VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF LIFE

“Variety's the very spice of life that gives it all its flavor [sic]” said William Cowper,
an English poet and hymnodist. One of the most popular poets of his time,
Cowper changed the direction of 18th century nature poetry by writing of
everyday life and scenes of the English countryside. Poets are a breed of extra-
sensitive people. They understand life in all its subtleties, because they have
experienced and ‘lived’ life to its fullest. When William Cowper, a great poet,
whom S.T. Coleridge himself called "the best modern poet" feels so about life
and its variety, what can I do but concur? Without variety, life is bland.
Following a routine, whatever the benefits of it being time-tested, day after
tiresome day, is disadvantageous and should be avoided at all costs. Life sans
variety is frankly not worth living. Even nature knows it. A variety of genes in
an organism enable it to adapt to changing circumstances. Every organism,
including humans by the way, seek to continue their generation with the
maximum chances to survive. And the instance of maximum chance of survival
coincides with higher adaptability, which corresponds to variety in the gene
pool. William Cowper also said, “The earth was made so various, that the mind
of desultory man, studious of change and pleased with novelty, might be
indulged”.

Variety in life makes it enjoyable. We see it all around us. Variety enables us to
pick and choose, a luxury which we would otherwise not have had. It relieves
the monotonous boredom of life. It is true in any field. I repeat, any field. “The
variety of all things forms a pleasure”, said Euripides who was the last of the
three great tragedians of classical Athens. From the sublime game of cricket to
the sublime art of essay-writing! Not only does variety have an aesthetic sense,
or rather, beauty, but it also enables us to increase our standard. For example,

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in cricket, a batsman possessing a variety of shots, all around the wicket, aerial
and along the ground possesses a much higher chance of survival and of scoring
runs than one who goes for only one shot, or more commonly, one type of shot.
Adaptability is key; and for adaptability, it is needed, absolutely needed, to have
variety. Another example can be made of essay writing. No one, not me at least,
likes to read an essay which is bland and lifeless. I think anyone who reads this
will agree with me. A writer must think of ways in which to make his\her essay
interesting and what better way to make it interesting than injecting variety to
the essay in the form of idioms and avoiding clichés?

“We need a variety of input and influence and voices. You cannot get all the
answers to life and business from one person or from one source”, said Jim
Rohn, an American entrepreneur, author and motivational speaker and whose
life was a typical rags to riches story. In the uncompromising and merciless
world that we live in these days, it is of utmost importance that we choose the
best measure, the best direction to follow. In the cut-throat competition, the dog-
eat-dog type, which we find encompassing the world today, a slight
miscalculation or, more often, a lack of means may cut short our chances. If one
does not follow a life rich in variety, one may fail to take advantage of certain
circumstances, which may have otherwise helped us, which we may rue later. To
prevent such catastrophes from happening, one should at all costs try to exercise
variety in our lives. “In the time of your life, live - so that in that wondrous time
you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the
infinite variety and mystery of it”, said William Saroyan an Armenian-
American dramatist and author.

So we see that having variety in our life is not only interesting but also
advantageous while compared with a monotonous life. A person with variety in
his life can be said to have a very fulfilling and satisfying existence. He wakes up

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every day knowing that he will be living that day in a different way compared to
other days. He thus is buoyant. Variety thus improves the quality of life very
much like how spices improve the quality of our food. Our ancestors also had
another use for spices. Spices were used in olden days to preserve food and we
can see that variety too preserves our life and makes it longer by infusing
excitement and unpredictability in our life. Unpredictability in small quantities
is good as it sprinkles a certain amount of zest and enjoyment in our lives and
makes it radiant. ‘Aurea mediocritas’ is a Latin phrase that denotes ‘the golden
mean’. It is meant to convey a philosophy of not partaking too much in
something. ‘Nec Dextrorsum, Nec Sinistrorsum’ which means neither to the
right nor to the left also means the same. It means that people should neither
veer too much to one side nor to another, but must undertake to walk in a path
which follows the Greek ideal of ‘moderation in all things’. Failure to follow this
ideal will be disastrous. Take a case study of alcohol. A small amount of it
everyday is said to be very beneficial according to doctors. But take it in the
form of a heavy dosage and the effects are not so benign. So is the case in all
things. We can also construe that too much of variety is not good for our health,
in the same way that too much of spice is not good!

In every field of life that we see, we see that variety plays a very important role.
Even in language. How can variety, I can hear a person ask, play an important
role in language? Well it’s fairly simple. A person with a good vocabulary can
articulate well, as different words have different shades of meanings, and thus
express himself without any hesitation or trouble. This is the reason why
lawyers need to have a good vocabulary; otherwise they may easily fall into
legal pitfalls. Good orators need to have a variety of words at their disposal.
Words, especially in the English language often can imply more than what they
mean and the subtle putting together of words, mainly adjectives to form
coherent phrases or sentences can often be hilarious, laughable or just plain

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 funny. A case in point is the three adjectives that I used towards the last of the
previous sentence.

It has been thus seen that variety is important for any person in any walk of
life. It revitalizes the mind and makes life ‘worth living’ to say the least. People in all
walks of life have to try to include an element of variety so that their life becomes
more fruitful and interesting. People should not live their lives according to
timetables. When one follows the same routine again and again one automatically
feels disinterested, as it is after all human nature to be disinterested when the same
old things happen again and again with no variation to occupy the mind. Some
people may say that it will be quite good if we are able to control our lives
completely, so that nothing untoward may happen. A rigidly controlled life with a
lack of variety is the model of this type of thinking. Shakespeare, makes his Gnaeus
Domitius Ahenobarbus say “Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite
variety”, while referring to Cleopatra and the charm she had on men in general and
General Antony in particular, in his well-known tragedy, Antony and Cleopatra.
The keyword here is ‘variety’. Shakespeare, an acknowledged expert on the varied
subtleties of human character, here himself acknowledges the importance of variety
in a person’s personality. I rest my case.

PRATHEEK PRAVEEN KUMAR

prytheek@yahoo.com