I have often pondered that deep philosophical question.
This summer at my work I moved down the hall to a new office. Good thing, because my old office was almost uninhabitable. My desks were filled with multiple piles of paper each averaging two feet high. My bookcases were full and unshelved books were collecting on the floor. My file cabinets were full of old materials needing to be discarded. Entropy was beginning to takeover.
An opportunity came to move my office like an opportunity to repent. I took it. No, I leaped upon it. I made the resolution that henceforth my office would look clean and organized. No longer would I be a slave to the disheveled. I was going to undergo an office makeover. My walls were going to sport new pictures and posters. Even my bulletin boards would have new cartoons.
Given all these changes, would my personality be renewed as well?
My wife got into the act. "Honey, there are a lot of artifacts in the house that you could use to decorate your new place." She was itching to get rid of my world globe that was cluttering our living room. Thus, I took it. And, then there was the African statue that was a little bit scary looking. No problem; I packed it too.
She said, "Take one of the framed orange crate labels." Our walls at home are filled with them. I took one to my new office. The label is "TRUTH," which somehow seems appropriate -- at least I aspire to it.
My framed and custom designed "Seal of Melchizedek" was hanging in a family room in our basement next to a Nordictrack ski machine. It needed to be promoted to a place of honor. I took it and hung it above my office desk.
On another side of my office I hung an autographed poster of Meave Leakey, the famous paleoanthropologist. I invited her to speak to my university about ten years ago.
On the floor I threw down a nicely decorated accent rug, and I placed my world globe in the middle of it.
I wish one could do to the mind what one can do in house cleaning. Reorganizing my mind is not likely to happen, but perhaps my newly decorated office will inspire my brain to new heights of creativity. For now, I better be content with a slightly enlarged sense of serenity. As they say, "cleanliness is next to godliness." Why I am suddenly thinking of the atonement?
Copyright 2009 S.Faux (Email: foxgoku54 [at] gmail [d0t] c0m; URL: http://mormoninsights.blogspot.com). Readers may distribute this post for noncommercial purposes provided such distributing is of the entire post, including author's copyright and contact information. All other rights reserved.
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12 comments:
I'm sure getting that new office great.
My office usually does okay, but my desk can usually use some work. I hope this is not a reflection into my life.
You sound just like me. In my office papers and books are stacked willy-nilly everywhere. It looks like a caricature of a mad professor's dungeon. Oh that I had an excuse to straighten it out!
I'm quite confident that there exists a "half life" of office cleanliness. This may vary by person, so that your half life is not the same as mine. But over time the law of entropy does indeed seem to hold and clutter increases.
I wonder if the scriptural command to "organize yourselves" applies to our offices? And is occasional obedience sufficient?
Dee:
I was so pleased with myself until I read your comment.
S.Faux,
What matters is whether you can find something among your messy stacks of paper. If you can find something then you are efficient. If you can't find something then you are messy. That's how I see it anyway. I am sure you are the efficient type.
I was just wondering. What if you picked up your stacks of paper and helped entropy a long by tossing them into the air. Might a marvelous literary work assemble on the floor by chance alone? (Sorry, I could not resist.)
Dave C:
Your are correct. I knew what was in my piles -- at least most of the time.
I love ya Dave because I still have NOT convinced you that evolution is NOT random. So, I will have to go back to the drawing board and design some new ways of explaining "selection," a term that means just the opposite of random.
Classes start tomorrow. My first class: "human evolutionary psychology", which is 1/3 biological evolution; 1/3 physical anthropology; and 1/3 psychology of the brain/mind.
I think of my office as diagnostic. If you straighten my paper clips, get kleenex boxes at right angles on the sideboard, etc. then I know we have an anxious type. Some will even comment on it themselves--"I'm a bit OCD".
I do know what is in my piles, though.
I could use a house and office move--a good purging is good for the soul.
By the way, do you take blog topic requests?
"Classes start tomorrow"
I hope the semester goes well.
Elizabeth-W:
I am always open to topic requests, but I won't make any promises. I have written essays for 30 years, and I have never understood how my brain latches onto a particular topic. All I know is that I must fulfill my urge to write. My primary areas of interest are theology, Church history, the military, evolution, and neuropsychology. As you know, this blog takes a strong Mormon slant on things.
Okay, here's what I'd like you to write about--or if you have already, and I've missed it, send me there.
I was looking at an old history book (Western Civ) and it starts with all the Homo s. sapiens starting out in Africa, working their way outward. Tell your thoughts on this and how it fits with Missouri as Genesis.
Someone made the mistake once of telling me that a messy desk is a sign of a brilliant mind. I never have kept an immaculate or even a semi-clean desk. In my case, although I haven't planned it this way, I think it gives the impression that I am more busy than I really am, so perhaps my disheveled desk is also somewhat dishonest...
Maybe once or twice a year I'll take an hour or two and throw away a bunch of stuff, but inevitably, within days, piles of paper magically reappear. I can usually find what I need though.
Elizabeth-W:
Here is as much as you are going to get out of me on that topic:
I believe in Adam & Eve. I believe we live in a "fallen" world. Much of the story, to me, is clearly metaphorical and symbolic. Whatever the truth of the story, it is essential and meaningful. How these individuals fit into the scientific scheme of evolution I would NOT even pretend to know.
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