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, 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,

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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 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

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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 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

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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