Experience is the Spice of Life

It may not be the only "Spice of Life", but I certainly believe that experience is one of the most important.  As I continue to try and define my post-childhood life, one of the things I keep coming back to is the realization that life genuinely feels less exciting than it did as a child.  When I try to explain to myself why that is, I always find myself resting on one major reason:

Experience, specifically new experience, is what keeps things interesting.

That's a major problem for us as individuals since our culture is geared toward codifying everything and "settling down" into a routine.  Think about that last sentence.  It is a simple way to describe how we live and it isn't possible to go five words without tripping over a description of anti-exploration.  That's a real obstacle for someone who wants to continue that feeling experienced in childhood of continual discovery.

Life as usual (man, don't we have enough expressions to describe sameness already?) for most of us consists of:
- Wake up
- Get ready for work
- Go to work
- Have lunch
- Go back to work
- Go home around 5:00
- Do whatever it is we routinely do
- Sleep

Realizing this, I began to contrast the above routine with what a childhood routine is like.  Children go to school, after all, and the only real difference in schedule is that children go home at 3:00.  So if it isn't a difference in schedule that makes life more or less boring, what is it?  I think it is the state of being ignorant.  I don't mean that in a degrading way at all.  I just mean that children haven't yet experienced or experienced as many times the things that we as adults have.  Somewhere around that 3000th game or so, somehow first person shooters seem less exhilarating than they did at first.  Endless variations exist on the central FPS theme but the familiarity with that type of activity dampens the excitement even for FPS games not already played.  This same principle of familiarity applies to things other than games as well.  You could apply it to meals, shopping, television, and even sex.

Repetition is a major component of that which kills what makes things and experiences special.  Just think about your favorite music.  Somewhere around the 250th time you've played a track that really felt special to begin with, it somehow seems less exciting, doesn't it?  That's just another example.

Knowing this, it's really too bad that our society's culture depends on repetition and burnout for normality.  Granted, there are only so many things that one can actually do in life, but it might just make things more interesting to be as diverse as possible instead of purposely living in a rut.  Now if only that were easier.  When we were children this took no effort as we were blank slates.  Everything was new and exciting regardless of what it was.  Now as adults it takes an active effort.  That's why I think that experience is the spice of life.  Now if only it came in plastic shakers instead of being so difficult to maintain.