A few people I know say that I am a bit too neat. This seems like it should be complimentive but instead those people mean it negatively. As though being tidy is an improper habit that indicates deeper character flaws. I think this is purely ridiculous in my case. Specifically, by being sensational I cannot be 'too much of anything' other than right, so therefore these people must be wrong.
Actually this is a symptom of a larger I've noticed lately in our society. Let's take the current example of some people saying I'm too clean. This opinion of theirs is based upon observation and their own pre-conceived notions about just how clean things ought to be in given situations. In my situation, by being a 20 something year bachelor, culturally speaking my living arrangements ought to be shabby, unkempt, and foul smelling. Now I understand that much. We all tend to make these small judgements all the time. The problem is that it does not get to the heart of the matter. Take these clean (or maybe in this case dirty) police. They've got their opinion of me on the matter. Now they have a choice, they can silently hold this impression of me, or they can bring it to light. The first silent option is quite wrong. First, people should care for others, and if they think someone has a legitimate problem that concern should be addressed. Secondly, they may be holding an impression which is quite wrong and could be corrected if only they were to bring it up. In fact maybe it's the person holding the impression who has the problem, because their sense of what's right and wrong could be completely out of whack.
So there are three situations here. First, the person who is too clean could be wrong. Second, the person who is too clean could be right but only appears wrong. Third, the person who has the impression of the person who is too clean has a flaw in their own thinking. Now none of these options can be addressed if the person holding the impression keeps it to himself. Thus it should be addressed. Fortunately, I have the blessing of friends who have no qualms what so ever about telling me what they think about my habits and inclinations.
However, while my friends are right to address the potential problem, my friends are still usually wrong in their approach. They always take situation 1 to be the case. When actually we already know this can never actually be the case, because we have already established that I'm the sensational one. With this in mind, we have to right-away look to situation 2 or 3.
Situation 2 is what I'd like to discuss today. What my friends so very often fail to do is address the possibility of situation 2, and it's very easy to do so. In order to address this situation all one has to do is ask me for my motives. I am constantly amazed at how much I can get away with because no one ever bothers to ask me 'why?'. I think the 'why' question so rarely comes up anymore because culturally we are obsessed with staying out of other people's business. So rather than try to get a clarification, we would rather hold our own impressions on the matter, right or wrong, and never bring it up. I would rather be asked something extraordinarily personal rather than have someone silently seeing me for something I'm not. Anyway, back to the situation. No one ever asks me why I tend to be so neat.
The truth is that I'm not too neat, I just keep certain things more clean and tidy than others. Two weeks back just before I went to Charlottesville, I told a co-worker I was going to wash my tire rims before leaving. He thought this was completely ridiculous. Now generally I would agree with him, however in this case the impression my rims make on my car is tremendous. When they are clean, the car is downright uplifting to the soul. When they are dirty the car looks old, and it brings on depressed emotions. When I had the van, God Bless it, I never bothered with the rims because they looked about the same clean or dirty. The difference between the two wasn't enough to warrant the time required to clean them. So maybe once or twice a year I'd make the effort and get them all nice again. But with my kitty-cat the difference between clean and dirty is incredible. Two days ago my co-worker made fun of me yet again, so I dragged him outside to show him the car. Right away he said the rims looked fine. See, they really don't look that bad when they are dirty because the dirt is uniform. It's the same effect the candle soot had on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The ceiling still looked amazing and a a tourist would never know the difference because he had never seen it clean before. Then I scrapped off the smallest bit of dust with my shoe and he was flabbergasted to the point that he bent down to test things out with his finger. To further illustrate this to you, my dear readers, I have included before and after photos.
Hence, I am not too neat. I just try to keep certain things looking nice because I find they create a more noticeable impression than other things. So I'm not too tidy, or not too untidy, I'm just right.
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