Mundane epiphanies

 

James Joyce once said that if Ulysses was unfit to read then life was unfit to live. At heart I see this as the affirmation of all the activities of our - often - apparently mundane lives.

Moving to art, one of the shocking things about the Impressionists was the actual subject matter of their paintings, rather than any particular style. The subject not drawn from some well known biblical story or Greek epic, not some King mounted on his steed, but rather a peasant sleeping off their labours under the midday sun. Mundane. Yet, as Joyce would have it, as fit to be lived, as expressive of authentic life, more so perhaps than any great event drawn from history. 

Obviously Leopold Bloom is totally unaware of the "greatness" of his life as he meanders through his Dublin day. While James Joyce himself sees the parallels between Bloom's activities and that of the great Greeks of old, for Bloom there is no such thought or reality. 

Bloom is well aware of his wife's infidelities. Is it stretching things a bit far to speak of his mercy towards them? Mercy - the heart of our reality. Again, contrast the almost pathetic and anti-climatic "ah" of Boylan's consummation of his dalliance with Molly Bloom, and Molly's own "Yes"! that concludes the book. "Ah" totally insignificant - certainly no mundane epiphany! - this against the yes, yes, yes, yes of Molly's long monologue. "Yes" to life. 

Another aspect of this are the words I seem to remember of the Zen Buddhist Thich Nhat Hanh:- "When walking just walk". And, presumably, when washing the dishes just wash the dishes! Each and every moment of our lives is of worth and holds a rich potential. We can miss that potential by pre-judging an activity as being "mundane" and therefore insignificant. 

 "Master! Master! What must I do to experience spiritual illumination?"

 " Well, my son, you must rise in the morning, dress and then eat"

 "But master, I don't understand"

 "Well my son, if you don't understand you must rise in the morning, dress and then eat."

So it is "nothing special". Awakening occurs in everyday life.