As a sociologist, I often am looking for patterns. In what is happening around me. In data. In books. I do not remember that I was told directly that this is the task of a sociologist but I do recall picking it up in school and work.

Above is an example of a more obvious pattern. Someone put a lot of thought and work into creating this pattern on the ceiling of a church foyer. They did not have to do this and many ceilings today are plain and devoid of patterns. Look up and you see this pattern.

Other patterns are less obvious. You may have a spreadsheet of data – and it takes work to collect and compile that data in the spreadsheet in the first place – but the patterns do not present themselves. You need a plan to look for patterns and then ways of organizing and explaining those patterns.

Or humans like to make meaning of the world around them and what happens to them. But we do not just file away random and disconnected data; we often try to fit what we experience into a meaning system that we have. We seek out patterns to explain the world and we can feel anxiety if our experiences do not quickly fit the patterns we expect.

Is life all about patterns? That might be going too far. But creating and seeing can be very human activities.