The Gift of Inconvenience

There is beauty in inconvenience. Inconvenience is not all bad. It’s a spiritual thing that leads to richness beyond.

-Ando Tadao

Japanese Architect

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Life is difficult, but once you embrace that difficulty, it’s no longer difficult. This seemingly circular reasoning is what I’m told is the heart of Buddhist philosophy. Maybe it’s what today’s gym rats embrace with their “no pain, no gain.” I had an episode of this that I’ve remembered for more than 30 years now. Maybe there’s something to it, I don’t know.

I was stressed, running late to a meeting, a meeting of so little consequence I now have no memory of what it was about or who I was meeting. Hastily I parked my pickup truck on an Atlantic City street. I opened the door, grabbed my bag from the passenger seat and hopped onto the street. But the bag didn’t come along; the shoulder strap snagged on the shift lever. “Goddammit,” I loudly bellowed, enraged at being so inconvenienced in the simple act of picking up my bag. The intensity of my emotion scared me. I stopped for that quiet, mystical, proactive moment, and thought to myself, “Who the hell are you to get enraged over the reality of simple physics — and your own failure to pay attention? Who are you to think the world will instantly conform to your desires and actions?” Life became slightly difficult for a moment. I had been inconvenienced. Perhaps that ultimately led to a “richness beyond” that Japanese architect Ando Tadeo talks about. Or maybe it’s all some kind of cosmic mumbo jumbo. It’s been on my mind since that day 30 years ago. It must mean something. Perhaps inconvenience can be a gift.

Outdoor courtyard of a Japanese home. This is the gift of inconvenience between the main house and the bathroom facility.

Architect Tadeo tells a story of a Japanese home he designed with the bathroom as a separate structure from the main house. It has all the usual conveniences of “indoor plumbing,” hot and cold running water, modern toilet, heat and air conditioning. There is a small courtyard separating the bathroom from the house, and it is exposed to the elements. If it’s raining, you get wet on your way to the bathroom. If it’s snowing, you pick up a little frosty snow on your way to the toilet. This is an intentional inconvenience, and its intent is to encourage gratitude and appreciation for the conveniences of the modern bathroom. The old time “outhouse” rendered in modernity.

The philosopher, Immanuel Kant, warned against the “poison of convenience,” writing: “Laziness and cowardice are the reasons why such a great part of mankind … made it so comfortable for others to set themselves up as their guardians. It is so easy to be immature.”  It can lead to a thoughtlessness that obscures the everyday beauties of life itself.

We can look at the history of humanity as a journey toward overcoming inconvenience. We label it “progress,” but it’s essentially eliminating inconvenience. Organized agriculture relieved hunter-gatherers the inconveniences of always moving to follow seasons, game, etc. Dark as they may have been, roofed huts saved the inconveniences of cold, rain, wind, etc. The printing press saved the inconvenience of travel to monasteries and such to access learned works (and the toil of transcribing by hand). The powers of horses, mules, oxen were harnessed against the inconveniences of working the fields by hand, carrying heavy burdens, even walking. Democratic government and rule of law saved us the inconvenience of arbitrary human fiats. The industrial revolution was a mass attack on inconvenience. We’ve succeeded in eliminating virtually every major human inconvenience today. Even the common cold is ameliorated through cough drops and over-the-counter medications; it’s hardly noticeable. All that’s left are traffic jams and slow download times. All that’s left is trivial inconvenience when measured against all of human history. We are left with the gift of inconvenience, if we will accept it.

Hiding her shame. Walking on the street I inconvenienced her by forcing her to stop a few feet short of other cars stopped at a red light. Angry, she aggressively accelerated the car at me to demonstrate her displeasure. When I took her picture, she was too ashamed of her behavior to claim it.

Conquering inconvenience has brought us to lives of ease, even luxury. A Medieval monarch would blush at the luxuries we now take for granted. Given this social Nirvana, why do so many people have a gripe on? Why so much seething anger just below the surface? Why the road rage? Why are so many retail workers abused by customers? Why are so many spouses being beaten? Why is divorce now commonplace? Why the mass shootings? Why is political science devolving into vicious deadly combat? In civil society, we used to agree to disagree and went about our business. Why are nations still warring against nations unceasingly? What ever happened to that “Age of Aquarius”? Then peace will guide the planets And love will steer the stars…

Harmony and understanding

Sympathy and trust abounding

No more falsehoods or derisions

Golden living dreams of visions

Mystic crystal revelation

And the mind’s true liberation

Such harmony and understanding is not going to magically happen because a few celestial bodies appear to have “aligned” in the universe. We humans can’t let ourselves off the hook that easily. It’s our responsibility, and we have to work hard at it. I don’t want to go back to the hunter-gatherer lifestyle, but there has to be a comfortable middle ground. Perhaps we can start by accepting, even relishing, the simple gift of inconvenience in this our time. Or is that an inconvenience too great to bear?