August 27, 2003 10:40 P.M.

Atrophy

Photos taken by Marcia, unrelated to journal topic - see below

The instructor stood at the front of the classroom explaining the scientific Principle of Atrophy. His purpose was to point out that, at least for him, it took much more �faith� to believe that things in nature just naturally evolved from lesser to better on their own, due to this principle which states that anything left to its own �devices�, or just left alone, will atrophy. It will become less than, not better or greater than.

I see this �law or principle of atrophy� at work in my home on an hourly basis. Oh, not just in the house structure, but in the contents too.

I have been wondering lately, how in the world I ever kept up with things around my home while I worked full time, as it is a sun-up to sun-down job just to keep clutter and disorganization from taking over my life.

I have been calculating how many hours out of each day I spend just picking up, straightening, putting away, organizing, sorting out, and disposing of�things.

Things seem to be controlling my remaining years. Not the acquisition of things�but the preservation or disposal of existing things.

We have just lived through a garage sale.

But we didn�t sell enough, so having so much remaining, we are doing it again this weekend. Is that insanity? (Well, since it was already set up�)

In the process, one good thing has come out of all this. Closets and cupboards have been cleared out and organized. But they won�t stay that way.

Last month I bought a new refrigerator. It was about time. The last one was purchased when my 38 year old son was born. I mean, I deserve a new refrigerator. And its contents were methodically organized in groupings to facilitate the finding of items.

Yeah, right! That really lasted a long time. When I open the �fridge door, I simply look for an empty spot where I can stick something. Isn�t that what everyone does? I mean, what if there is no space remaining on the condiment shelf, and I need to put a jar of mayonnaise in the �fridge? Am I supposed to leave it out, or place it in that wide open space on the deli shelf? No hesitation. It�s on the deli shelf.

The problem is, that when �putting away time� arrives, for anything�a person is ALWAYS in a hurry to do it. So we just �stick it in someplace�, and promise ourselves we will come back later to straighten it out. Or not.

Later never comes. At least not until this has occurred about 20 times and then we open the cupboard/fridge door to discover chaos.

So the question is. Do we spend our precious time carefully putting things away faithfully �in the proper place�.each and every time�even when on the run to somewhere ? (This takes deliberation and time.) Or do we spend our precious time doing it in one �fell swoop� (whatever that is) at a later date. This does NOT mean that we just leave things lying about. I am a tidier. But I so often just seem to �stick them away, out of sight� somewhere. And they accumulate more and more. It seems to me to be a lose-lose situation. (Oh I know you neatniks will opt for the former method.) But I honestly don�t think that when you are in �real time� living and dashing through life, you can POSSIBLY place everything in its proper location at all times. (As the little kids would say, �Nuh-Uh!)

So I guess when God instructed the Patriarchs to ��subdue the earth�, this was the major part of doing it.

It is definitely a struggle to keep that �atrophy� at bay.

All the photos on this page are little �vignettes� taken at my daughter�s home. In the midst of the Las Vegas desert, they have decorated their home as a �wannabe� mountain lodge�.sometimes with a Frank Lloyd Wright-ish flavor. These are three of the several shots I took this summer of �spots� throughout their home.

That�s been a big part of these last few days. Cleaning out and organizing. Hope your summer has been a bit more exciting. But it does give one a sense of accomplishment.

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