MESS IS A MYTH

MESS IS A MYTH

Written for a prompt on project 365 on” does a messy home or office make you cranky?”OR ‘Do you clear up just before someone visits you?”

 

What mess? It’s a figment of your imagination. It’s a matter of perspective. One man’s mess is another’s landscaping.

Cleaning up is merely shifting matter from spot A to spot B. Matter cannot be destroyed. So why try? The natural state of the universe is chaos. It is futile trying to bring order to it. Ask Feynman, he will confirm.

A random distribution of objects around space can be called clutter, if the placement of objects in relation to each other is not in tune with the aesthetic notions of an individual. Now this is a subjective criterion. It is neither culture neutral nor intrinsic to human nature.

I may revel in clutter. And if I can convince enough gullible people that this is due to aesthetic choice and not sheer laziness, this can be termed live art, and you would be prohibited from trying to clear up. Dadaism was born this way. Dada was probably a bong migrated to Spain. He was a lazy man and great salesman, much like me. So now we pay an entrance to gape at his clutter at sundry museums across the world.

But I wouldn’t go that far. You are welcome to clear up my room or office if and when you visit. I am tolerant by nature. I can live with your aesthetics. Besides, it saves me the trouble of having to do so myself. And sometimes I rediscover long lost objects and documents.

This answers your second question of do I clear up just before an impending visit? Most emphatically I don’t. I lay in wait for impending visits. Why take the trouble off clearing up when someone else just may do it for you? And quite often they do! You can never underestimate the need of various neatness freaks to clean up. Sometimes they won’t visit you again, bit that can be a blessing too! And I promise I came upon this brilliant idea long before watching ‘Friends’ or ‘Big Bang Theory’. Ask my wife, she will confirm.

Not that I duped her. My explanation that the natural state of the universe is chaos didn’t quite gel, when she visited the disaster area that was my bachelor pad. So she organized it for me, hoping to shame me into emulating her. But she had underestimated my laziness and determination. She ended up having to take care of me till death or divorce did us part.

Therefore you see that mess holds no terrors for me, and does not lead to stress of any kind. In fact I see it as an expression of my creativity; Even if you don’t. Nor do I clear up when visitors arrive. I hit the jackpot once that way; perhaps lightning can strike twice?