Cleaning Up

I like knowing what I'm doing. I like the clarity of setting down to a defined task. I don't much care for muddling along when I don't understand the goals. I don't demand that goals be concrete, but it's hard for me when I haven't got an articulated direction. It used to drive me nuts when other people's goals didn't match my goals. I've gotten better about that, or at least more realistic about it.

I don't like cleaning up. I don't like sweeping, I don't like throwing out, I don't like putting away, and I really don't like battles that can't be won, like my current fight against the mouse insurgency that's invaded the studio.

Strangely, though, when I'm feeling most muddled and unclear about things and every task seems Sisyphean, cleaning seems to help me sort things out mentally as well as physically. In some weird way the dreaded sweeping, dusting, putting away, and tossing out become some sort of metaphoric ritual, and at the same time that I'm pitching out the 27,533 accumulated Light Impressions catalogs I'm also tipping broken ideas and projects into the conceptual dustbin.

Today was just a cleaning up day, and that's about all I can say about that.