There are forty-seven fishsticks in the freezer.Thi is a fundamental information for this class, which is not really a class, thus producing a straight-up antithesis with the concept of "order".
We are all obsessive-compulsive. 99 people out of 100 keep it in check, knowingly (a few) or unknowingly (the most part), one is controlled by it, and needs therapy. But we all are, and we have been since we were kids, or better, expecially when we were kids.
You don't agree?
Think about it, no matter if going back to when you wrew a child, or looking at one right now: the whole biscuit is good, a piece of biscuit is bad. Toys must be left in a specifical order and position, or else they are not good for playing, today. The ball must be placed in that exact spot on the carpet, tile or courtyard, positioning it back if it moves, even five times in a row, or else it is not good for kicking. Dinner is good when it has a specifical aspect, or color. It is often preferred the same scene in a whole movie, looking at it again and again. Among many toons, or fairy tales, the same ones are always watched, or asked for. The same nightlamp must be lit and placed in that same position, every night. Every small difference is immediately and duly noted, with a "why?" attached. The toothpaste must be sqeezed in a certain quantity, and from left to right (or the opposite), or else teeth will not be washed.
And the most famous of them all: while walking down the street, do not step on the lines in the pavement.
Now you agree. I knew it.
A part of this all, is instinct. Man is born with a knack for order, and a repulsion for chaos. Messy people? They will tell ya that theirs is a "creative chaos", or that it is not chaos at all, and by all means what you see as chaotic they see as a complex structure, and will prove it to you by finding every stuff they need out of it. Also, if you look more carefully, you'll notice that even "chaotic" people have untouchable havens of perfection (be that how pens are placed on the table, books by color on the booksheld, cds by alphabetical order, etc).
"The boy is instinctively ordered and obedient" means "the boy has a strong obsessive-compulsive component". Rational mind then blossoms up, and logic takes the helm, still leaving a bigger or smaller portion of it to that inner sprite that needs to count up the fishsticks in the freezer.
Think about it, again: you go back three times (not two, not four) to check if you turned off the lights, or the kitchen switch. Soaps and shampoos are always placed in the same order in your bathroom. Wife, or husband, or housemaid, keep leaving the toilet paper here and there, and you always have to put it back where it belongs. The watre bottle, in the fridge's door, is always the first bottle on the left, or on the right. If you find the chees on the upper shelf, you move it back immediately to its compartment. Dresses in your wardrobe are ordered by some criteria, and those are your criteria, no matter what, still the same with every season change. If sheets and pillows dont match color, you dont lay in bed comfortably. You always place objects, or sets of objects, two by two or three by three: like remotes on the table by the couch. There is an excessive and ferocious pattern in the way you put your underwear in the drawers. A place for every thing, every thing has a place. If someone leaves toothpaste or mayonnaise open, they must be closed - and right now.
And the most famous of them all: you always immediately turn the bread "right" if it has been placed on the table "upside down".
Now you are scared. That is excessive.
The bottom of it, the mistake every one falls for, is believing in casuality. Einstein's opinion aside ("God does not play chess"), since he referred to more complex things, randomness does not exist. No computer generates "random" numbers, since it is base on programmed and therefore predictable algorithms, however complex they are (that is why serious lotteries still require numbered balls). Also the brain, when thinking a "random" number, follow a path, a non-conscient one, but still a path. Every person has "good numbers" and "bad numbers", even unknowingly. Ask someone to think up a number between 1 and 10. One time out of two you'll pick him by calling for 3 or 7. To some people, even numbers are good, "finite", while odd numbers are bad, "unfinished". Those with a superior formation in mathematics, may think the opposite, and like some particular numbers (like 13 17 or 47, superstition notwithstanding), since prime numbers attract the prepared mind. If you "like" the succession 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21 or, unlike many obsessive-compulsive people, you are attraced by decimal numbers and you "like" 1,618, there might be some things said about superior math, but that is another argument entirely.
Randomness does not exist, every event is a consequence to another that produced it, and everything has an order, even things that seem not to have it. Our instinct drags us towards order, or towards our particular idea of order at least, but repetition, uniformity, geometry that are into things, do attract us. Everything refers to some scheme. If you are thinking "now I'll check it, and will not put the toothpaste here or the soap there", you still are not getting out of it, since you are planning a schematical behaviour, voluntarily, as a consequence to the original one, istinctive. You cannot get out of it: we are all a little obsessive-compulsive, I am (oh yeah!), and Mario is (even if he does not like to admit it), and you are.
Dont look oddly at people with their "strange behaviours". You put down your cell phone too in "that" manner, and turn it this way, and the coffee cup too always in the same spot, and if someone moved that picture you keep close to the phone, you will move it back as it was, even if it means a half-inch rotation. Hence, many people are referred to as "too precise": a job is never well done and finished, there is always something to refine; if that file, or project, is not "done" to a certain point of satisfaction, you go home and will be anxious all evening, or you just work an extra-hour, not because you have an imminent deadline, but only because you want to leave everything "in order".
If you are one of the 99 people who keep this thing in check, no problem. Look at it, be careful that id does not slip out of your control. Practice your control. Leave the car a bit out of the parking lines. Dont clean up compulsively the coffee ring on the table underneath your cup. Just drop it all one day at 5pm sharp, leave things as they are, and warp away. Leave that damn toothpaste open. Tomorrow, after breakfast, put the milk back into the fridge with no cover.
And absolutely, at least this time, do not count up the fishsticks in the freezer.
And now, today's non-lesson: check other folks. How often they go and wash their hands. how they sit, what they do, how they move around. You just need a few hours. The guy in the next cubicle has been a pain in the ass for the past month? Now you know you'll just need to move his granny's photoframe from the pc for a few days in a row, and you'll have disrupted the flowing of his day. If bad comes to worse, you can pull that frame away and throw him into depression. Oh, that other guy walking to the bathroom every twenty minutes: just sweat up your hands a little, and gently pat him on the wrist. Go have a small chat with that lady you really can't stand, then leave your coffee cup on her table, after having carefully checked it is wet on the downside. You will have already vanished the kleenex box from her drawer.
Obsession-compulsion a problem? Nah. It's power now.
Like inthe Matrix movies, you just need to know the code. And every person has, or better, is a code. Read other people's code, you'll learn more about yours, or you'll learn how to ignore yours if today you just dont like it.
Okay, coffee break is over: everybody back to class please, but walk in a one-person line by height, goddammit.
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento