Of cleanliness and Garfield's brethren

In my mom's book, working in a clean place would beget any self-directed person his/her most desired output. While not being as spic and span as my mom, I am the usual recipient of her "homilies". And well, I just realized that she's not just being an OC. True enough, it is indeed difficult to work in the midst of a "forest" (i.e., of papers, clips, markers, and pc-related gadgets), cleaning and clearing is a MUST. Papers should be filed properly since they are to be kept for two sems max, and the study table shouldn't accumulate dust (yea, i work in a very dust-prone room). Cleaning then should be done regularly, instead of having a monthly general cleanup usually causing cough flaring to asthma (well, we may add backpains along)

While I am not that religious in regular cleaning, I can deservingly brag about being the best general cleaner of the bedroom. But y'see that cannot be so amazing (especially for my mom -- it never impressed her, hahah) since most of the stuff inside the room are mine. So we could just say that by virtue of duty, i am (and should be) the only one who could make the bedroom reallllyyy clean. While I take care of the room, it is mama who takes care of the entire "white" house. You could regularly see her scrubbing floors, and even walls when she's bored (hehehe, love you ma); then complaining about her back thereafter. Well, it was her will to make the house like that (she loves white) so it is her prime responsibility to keep it pristine. And while nobody else is around to back her up on that ordeal, I become her deputy by default (am also a white-fanatic anyway, while not being as OC as she is).

Chuck Norris (yea, that's mama) taught me that a general cleaning, either of a house, an office or just a study/working area requires the total elimination of filth. It is practically done to make the setting a good place for work/any purposeful activity. Being spic and span is not just an after-effect of being an OC, most of the time it is needed in order to have clear thoughts.

Clarity is a must in thinking, and I must say in purposeful thinking. Am having a full-taste of that thought whenever I check essay questions. There are many instances when a perfect score is compromised by lots of "filth" -- the thought is there but is made obscure by a maze of wrong contextualizations (which they oftentimes assume as streaks of creativity; but you see class, there is a difference between "doing art" and "creatively putting in trash"). The same goes for research, a paper could last for like fifteen to twenty pages while failing to answer the posed problem. The same thing goes for recitations, and moreso when people talk -- lots of "airtime" are being wasted because of mere blabber.

There is filth everywhere and we can't just limit it to cleaning a house or checking of papers. Most of the time, we deal with filth; and what makes it worse is we do not know that it's already filth. (Advertising, anyone?) Some are into material and intellectual (and moral) recycling though -- well, we could take it as resourceful but then again, it is already a modification and is still a lower-class option.

People are bestowed with clean, clear and pristine stuff -- yet we make it dirty. As God (who looks like George Burns) said to Jerry Landers, "I've made enough trees" -- we are the ones who are causing the lack. We're supposed to deal with this world by virtue of maintenance, and augmentation. Troubleshooting shows that we are rational, creative and resourceful but it could just mean cleaning the filth that we've made. Redeeming something is positive and is definitely progressive but it is not at all an authentic augmentation -- it is just meant to "bring us back". Although it is the initial step, it is not a kind of moving forward that truly makes us go beyond.

Transcendence is another issue. We fix things and clean up because we ourselves cause up mess.

(Well, it could also be as unfair as cleaning up the mess that others made. Hehehe ask me, that always happen.)

People troubleshoot for the things that they cause, they clean up (that is when they choose to) for the dirt they neglect. There are some whom I call as part of Garfield's brethren. While everything's okay they splurge, eat lasagna, stay sleepy in the box, complain about the harshness of life (as if they've been so exposed to it, and as if they know what life is all about) while choosing not to do anything about it. They talk profoundly of poverty, while not even lifting a finger to help out. They hate to exercise, because they do not want to move even if they're bored. But much like the aesthetes, they battle against boredom. When given the harshest problems in life, they are like the most helpless beings in the world.

It's like more of making oneself a "filth" than of "being filthy". Analogy-wise and bluntly, a person like that is not the dirty room to be cleaned, s/he is the filth that should be removed from the room.

Well, to clarify, I am not making a primal prejudice. After all, we become filth on our own doing.

Am I being harsh? I don't think so.