Yesterday might have been sugar, but today I've moved on to spice! I found today's dose of novelty in the place that lurks between technology and my spice cabinet. However, before I explain, let me give you a little preface...
When I started this project, the idea of having at least one novel experience a day for an entire year seemed incredibly overwhelming... Impossible at times, truth be told! In anxiety stricken moments I have continuously found myself wondering how much more novelty there could be for me to experience without travelling far afield or spending tons of money? However, here we are at day forty! And while it becomes easy for me to feel overwhelmed when I realize that I have three hundred and twenty-five more experiences to go, (YIKES!), from the standpoint of my day-to-day reality, this challenge has been much, MUCH easier than I had imagined.
One of my greatest fears is that someday I will experience the "Jack and Diane" phenomenon. I'm sure you know the John Cougar Mellencamp song... But just in case you need your memory refreshed, how about we have a little sing along. Let's take it from the chorus. Ready? Here we go! "Oh yeah! Life goes on... Even after the thrill of living is gone. Oh yeah, I say life goes on... Long after the thrill of living is gone." This is the stuff of my nightmares! The idea of getting to a point in my life when I might completely lose my thrill of living keeps me up at night! And to think that Jack and Diane were teenagers! TEENAGERS!
Thankfully, this experiment has provided me with the antidote to this dreaded fate. Everyday that I have a novel experience, I guarantee myself at least one little thrill. Of the forty new experiences I have had thus far, some have been fleeting or silly. However, there are many others that have altered my day-to-day existence and I find myself continuously coming back for more! The full impact of each experience needs to be judged over time, and I am providing updates on my Experiences page as we go along. But what I am realizing is that there is a nearly endless amount of novelty to be experienced in life! All a person has to do is look for and be open to the plethora of opportunities that are out there!
The major lesson learned has been how and where to look! While I have come across ideas from many sources, nothing has been a richer source of inspiration than Facebook. For all the issues that Facebook creates for people and society, just glancing at the list of daily status updates from friends and acquaintances provides me with a rich variety of ideas! From chocolate-covered bacon to bee keeping, my friends and family are turning out to be an endless font of novel experience knowledge!
So, getting back to the here and now, today's novel experience was inspired by a posted link and status update from a Facebook friend. McCormick, of McCormick spice fame, has provided a nifty little tool for finding out just how old your spices are by entering a code from the bottom of the container into a tool on their website. For some reason, this seemed like a fun activity for me so I took the bait, checked out their site, and gathered up all of my McCormick spices. While most of my spices were reasonably "young," I did dig up one tin or Jamaican Ginger... and since tins apparently were discontinued FIFTEEN years ago, it's probably time for it to be retired! I might be a bit of a hoarder, but even I have limits!
So, in conclusion, today's experience may not have been life altering or profound, but it provided me a with a little thrill. And if one little thrill can prevent me from becoming like Jack or Diane, I'll take it!
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