the strangeness of the everyday

That element of tragedy which lies in the very fact of frequency, has not yet wrought itself into the coarse emotion of mankind; and perhaps our frames could hardly bear much of it. If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence. As it is, the quickest of us walk about well wadded with stupidity.

--George Eliot, Middlemarch

The magic of the everyday

And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.
--Roald Dahl

Ordinary Lives

There are names from every era that are blazoned across the pages of history. But emperors and kings are not the people for whom the world was created, nor are they the forces which turn the world.

I recently watched the first season of Doctor Who (the subsequent seasons got put off by school, but they will be watched). One of my favorite things about it (and there were many) is that the characters it focuses on aren't world famous doctors, lawyers, investigators, or the president. They are normal everyday people living normal, unglamorous lives--working at a department store, going grocery shopping, fighting, and loving.

This is evident in the Doctor's fascination with humans, with earth. But no where is it clearer (at least in the one season I have seen) than in the episode Father's day. When, on a trip back in time, Rose saves the life of her father the fabric of the world ruptures and the earth comes close to ending. As the Doctor explains this is precisely because of the power of ordinary lives;

"Rose, there's a man alive in the world who wasn't alive before. An ordinary man. That's the most important thing in creation. The whole world's different because he's alive."

The Doctor emphasizes this at other points through out episode. He tells one couple who says they would appreciate it if he saved them even though they were not important, "Who said you’re not important? I’ve traveled to all sorts of places, done things you couldn’t even imagine, but... you two. Street corner, two in the morning, gettin’ a taxi home. I’ve never had a life like that." It is normal people, living everyday lives who he is trying to save, it is they that are important.