I am in the process of attempting a thorough beginning-of-the-year cleaning of my office and a few other spaces in my life. I've tried a variety of techniques for accomplishing this in the past, but most are just temporarily effective and never thorough. This weekend I visited someone's home that was extreme on the other end of the spectrum, orderly and uncluttered. Every item in the house (with the exception of maybe one room) had been purposefully arranged. Everything had a place and everything was in its place.As a result of this visit, I felt inspired to tackle my own space. In the past I've tried books like Clutter's Last Stand to no avail. Perhaps I was using the book incorrectly, as a prod to poke me instead of a vision to inspire me. For whatever reason, I consider clutter to be something like the tide. It goes out, it comes back. It recedes, it rushes back in.
Sunday afternoon I began once more to give it another go. Some progress has been made and to the degree that I continue, more will be achieved. As for now, it feels good to be able to see the top of my desk again. I also found some important papers that I hadn't seen in a while.
Here below are some less important notes from various scraps I found buried on my desktop. Maybe you'll find some of this as interesting as I did.
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Dream about Misplacing Things
I hate misplacing things so when I went to put my gutter back on in the spring, I went out to my garage and it wasn’t where I usually store it for the winter. I started looking for it, first in the obvious places and then in the basement and then behind the shed. Finally, I remembered where it was. I had shipped it to my brother in New Jersey. He said it was in a storage locker in Atlantic City.
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Zelig
Educating Rita
About Schmidt
Tenth Man
Tender Mercies
Remains of the Day
Groundhog Day
Awakenings
12 Angry Men
Truman Show
Trip to Bountiful
What About Bob?
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The bigger the plane, the longer the runway.
Fiddling while Rome burns?
“Our destiny chooses us. You can’t run from who you are.”
“It’s about letting the butterfly go and it comes back by itself. Animals and children instinctively recognize that energy around a person. If someone really wants the child to come over, the child usually doesn’t, because it’s not as sweet an energy. But if they sense a bigness and not just a pulling, it’s sweeter.”“Describe what you see.”
“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
Idea for a painting. Have someone paint something for me, but I sign it, and call it mine. Title: “Damien Hirst Made Me Do It.”
The Last Shard (title)
Garrett McKinnon. The Dark and Deadly Sky
Proliferation of Meanings
Matthew Oman, Red Yellow Blue Green
George Catlin
Murder Is My Beat: Classic Film Noir Themes
Bohren & Der Club of Gore
John Zorn, Naked City
Another Shade of Blue
Jazz In Film, Terrence Blanchard
Pete Rugulo
Stan Kenton
“In every relationship there lies a possibility of influence.” ~Andre Gide
Electric wires and sky
Vulnerability
And the Beat Goes On
Have a great day... and let the light guide your way.
2 comments:
Good morning Ed!
When I was sifting through boxes, preparing to put our house on the market, I found no fewer than then magazines with stories, titles such as "Cut Clutter Forever," "Organize and Keep it That Way." I organized. They are all now in a box marked, "Magazines" -- not the only with that name, I might add.
The desk is uncluttered, though -- till you open the drawers.
Loved this post!
Ann
Yes, my desktop here is less cluttered. Still need to get down into those drawers, though.
It's hard being both a writer and an artist though. I keep a lot of things because I "may write about this sometime." And a lot of other junk is potential material for a future art project. Alas!
Thanks for the note, Ann.
e.
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