From: Defiant Normality by John Derbyshire (edited)
I am a big fan of normality and I can personally testify that the affirmation of routine, of normality, is psychologically beneficial.
There was a point in my own life when I was wretchedly unhappy. I moped, I drank, I sank deep into self-pity — the lowest and least attractive of all states of mind. The consequence of all that was, that I ran out of money.
Dragging myself from my den of misery, I got a job, the least mentally demanding job I could think of. It involved a full nine-hour day of washing dishes, scrubbing food-preparation surfaces with green plastic scouring pads and mopping floors with a boot-rotting mixture of ammonia and cleaning fluid, all at minimum wage.
The boss of the establishment had served in one of the more rigorous branches of the military, and considered he was being cheated if his employees stood idle for more than fifteen seconds. If there was no work to be done, he found some.
I have always felt very grateful to that place. The sheer forced routine of getting myself down there by seven-thirty every morning, carrying out my assigned tasks, not being able to smoke except at prescribed times, and not being able to drink at all until evening, straightened me out.
I got my head together, as the saying went: attained a clear view of things, or at any rate a much clearer view than I'd had, kicked the stupid drink problem, saved a little money, found a decent place to live, stopped feeling sorry for myself, and got my sense of humor back.
By the time they fired me, I was already thinking: "What am I doing here?" I rested up for a week, then put on a suit and tie and got a job that matched my qualifications.
