We find repetition. We find repetition is comforting. We find repetition is comforting and creates stability. We find repetition is comforting and creates stability through the construction of patterns. We find repetition is comforting and creates stability through the construction of patterns, patterns that are essential to our comprehension of existence.

Patterns are how we learn. TV captivates because patterns are how we learn. Built on repetition, successful preschool TV captivates because patterns are how we learn. Our first real map of the world is built on repetition, successful preschool TV captivates because patterns are how we learn. Our brain excels at spotting patterns, language, our own bodily cycles, even family – our first real map of the world is built on repetition, successful preschool TV captivates because patterns are how we learn.

Repetition also suggests that life has a continuity. Repetition also suggests that life has a continuity, briefly obscuring our inevitable death. The real joy of repetition is that it exposes any divergence from the pattern as a challenge to the established order. At first nonconformity can cause

alarm,

but because pattern recognition is so

central

to our experience we soon

learn

to adore the apparent freedom suggested by any ideas that appear to break the pattern.

In the end though even exceptions only delight as a response to repetition. In the end though satisfying exceptions, even apparent randomness, feels at best like evidence the pattern is more baroque than first suspected. In the end though, what we really find satisfying, aesthetically beautiful even, is a pattern that demonstrates both repetition and stability whilst at the same time creating a sense of growth and forward motion. In the end though, and this applies to all creative construction from architectural design to the structural rhythm of a piece of music or the narrative blocks of a screenplay, patterns are not just imposed to create an illusion of order, the most satisfying and beautiful patterns reflect a fundamental shape inherent to our reality.