Next time you feel like beating yourself up about this or that, remember one thing. There is always someone worse off than you. Now, that works on many different levels, but for me the point was recently driven home.
Sometimes I get down on myself because I'm not as organized as I'd like to be. Or at least I feel I'm not. And I've spent enough time around judgemental people that I make a conscience effort to not judge others, having heard the sounds of bitter minds and their tongues wagging with discontent. But sometimes..
I was watching the tv show "Mission: Organization" the other day and the focus of the show was the kitchen. MO is a HGTV show about getting organized around the house; tackling chaos and making sense out of disorder. Getting organized and staying that way, which given the number of episodes I've seen, is a hot topic since there are a lot of people who need the services of a professional organizer, and a lot of people who saw organization as a profitable career path.
This show never fails to amaze me. I've been in a few messy, unorganized kitchens in my life but the one featured was jaw dropping. The wife is a SAHM who is a web consultant and states her kitchen is so unorganized it is the source of stress for her every morning. And her kitchen is a disaster. It wasn't really dirty, it was just crammed with everything under the sun as the homeowner also uses the dining room as her home office. The counter was covered, every square inch had something on it, every cabinet was overflowing with stuff. So the team of the husband, wife and organizer get to work clearing out the mess. Things are going well, and then they reach the oven. The organizer opens the door, at which point it becomes clear that the housewife doesn't cook (or bake at least), given the massive number of plastic items being stored inside the oven. Momentarily shocked by the sight, the organizer bends over and pulls out a small object from inside the oven. She then turns to the wife...
Organizer (holding a small piece of pink and white lacey fabric in her hand): Can you tell me about this?
Wife (nervously tucking hair behind ear): It came with a gift and it was so pretty I wanted to keep it but didn't know where to put it.
So, she put it in her oven.
Now...just think about that for a second.
Apparently I missed the lecture in my junior high school home economics class which discussed how the oven, when not in use, can be repurposed into a fabric storage container.
Clueless. Completely and totally clueless. They didn't show the husband's facial reaction to this, but it didn't sound like he was too affected by the discovery.
The thought that there are people like this, possibly living in my neighborhood, just gives me shivers.
Really puts a new twist on diversity. One man's castle is another's fire hazard.