“While others more foresighted than they had got their money out of Santo Domingo and had gone to New Orleans, or were starting new coffee plantations in Cuba, those who had salvaged nothing reveled in their improvidence, in living from day to day, in freedom from obligations, seeking, for the moment, to suck from everything what pleasure they could find” (Alejo Carpentier, The Kingdom of This World, 76-77).

This sounds like a pretty nice concept—to get the most out of life that you can, just living up every moment to its fullest—as opposed to the people who take the more responsible route and try to get their lives in perfect order and harmony. As I was thinking about these two different views on life I couldn’t help but notice that these two views are usually what the two main characters in almost every movie ever made have. One of the characters is the responsible one who has a routine and order in their lives. The other character lives day by day and tries to have as much fun as they can while living it. Basic plot: they meet, they can’t stand each other, they start to like the other point of view, they fall in love or begin to see eye to eye and live happily ever after.

Why do we find such joy in this? How can we watch movie after movie or read book after book about this same exact situation? Why are they so central to life? I’m no expert, but having these differing personalities is what runs the world. If we were all straight-laced and never stepped aside from our order we would never invent new things, try different concepts, find all the joy available in life. On the other hand, if we were all care-free it would be a miracle if anything actually got done that needed to get done.

Balance is the key. It’s as soon as that balance starts dying that things get out of hand in life. But if they’ve already started to get unbalanced like in Carpentier’s book, how do you bring it back to balance?