The View From the Window: Enjoying the Simple Things in Life
Photo: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-W0409-300/Kolbe, Jörg via Wikimedia Commons
Faced with a seemingly intractable range of existential challenges, it can be tempting to retreat into oneself. To pull the drawbridge up and keep the world at bay. But this doesn’t solve anything. The world keeps turning.
A healthier response is to examine your relationship with society. And consider how you might do your bit to make the world a better place.
As many people are discovering, the continued lockdown is forcing us to re-examine how we live our lives. To re-evaluate the importance of things we take for granted. And to slow down and enjoy the simple things in life.
Jimmy Reid, the Clydeside trade union activist, had a nice way of putting this: “A rat race is for rats. We're not rats. We're human beings. Reject the insidious pressures in society that would blunt your critical faculties to all that is happening around you, that would caution silence in the face of injustice lest you jeopardise your chances of promotion and self-advancement.”
Simple pleasures are a bridge across the void
But how do we take that active step to improve the quality of our lives? One way of approaching this is to focus on the simple pleasures that remind us of who we are and how things might be different.
The playwright Bertolt Brecht wrote a marvellous poem, Pleasures, that really brings this home:
The first view from the window in the morning
The old book found again
Enthusiastic faces
Snow, the turning of the seasons
The newspaper
The dog
Dialectics
Taking showers, swimming
Old music
Comfortable shoes
Understanding
New music
Writing, planting
Travelling
Being friendly
On the face of it, it’s an arbitrary list that anyone might have jotted down. But there’s something else going on here. It’s not just a celebration of the simple joys of life. It also offers a way of connecting our inner and outer worlds.
Take the first line, “The first view from the window in the morning”. This invites us to re-engage with what’s going on beyond our immediate thoughts. Taken with the lines about “Enthusiastic faces” and “Travelling”, it’s a reminder of the benefits we derive from being part of a larger community.
Interspersed through the poem are references to “The dog”, “swimming” and “Comfortable shoes”. Simple pleasures, indeed.
This is where it gets interesting. “Dialectics”. What on earth is that doing in there? Along with “Understanding” and “Writing, planting”. And what does it mean?
Brecht transformed theatre with his bold new approach to the theory and practice of drama. And his work – including his poetry – reflected his radical commitment to socialist politics and the emancipation of working people.
No man ever steps in the same river twice
Dialectical thinking goes back to the ancient Greeks. It was then updated by Hegel. And given a revamp – and materialist underpinning – by Marx and Engels.
In a nutshell, everything is in a continual process of becoming and ceasing to be. Nothing is permanent. Everything changes. All things contain contradictory forces. And the tension between them is the driving force of change, which eventually transforms or dissolves them.
Brecht’s creativity thrived on his understanding of the flaws and contradictions he saw in society. He wanted his audiences not just to examine the world around them, but to consider how they might change it. As he once said, "Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are."
The poem finishes with the simple line, “Being friendly”.
This is what life’s all about, isn’t it? Recognising the ethical imperative to respect others. Understanding the power of friendship. The value of solidarity. Reflecting on the contradictory pressures that drive our behaviour. Whilst celebrating our essential humanity.
What’s on your list of simple pleasures?