From The Editor
Controlled Chaos
As we put together the final touches to this month’s Senior Times, I find myself sitting in my office surrounded by boxes and detritus, saying to no one in particular, ‘Where is my rolodex?’ I have come to discover (to re-discover) that it is not until I put something away that I suddenly need it.
For this reason, I keep my home office in a constant state of disarray because when I clean it up I cannot find anything. This habit serves me well at the moment, because now I am less likely to become completely discombobulated by the disorder that surrounds me. Visitors to this chaotic scene must marvel that anything constructive could possibly come to fruition in such an environment.
Yet, the show must go on. And it shall.
For the past several weeks everyone here at Tower Publications has been preparing for the big move to our new office building up the road. One weekend many of us gathered to paint the new building, eat pizza and drink some beer (once the painting was accomplished). And it looks great.
This is an exciting time, and as much as I abhor moving I find myself looking forward to our new digs, and the opportunity to put some order in my life. Yes, I know it won’t last, because as much as I would like to be a neat and orderly person it is just not in my nature. I blame the artist in me.
Plus, anytime I start to clean my desk, or anything else for that matter, I become distracted. What’s on this scrap of paper? I need to read it. Oh, it is a phone number — without a name. So I better keep it. In the end I’ve accomplished little more than relocating my clutter.
But not this time, no siree. This is my chance to throw out the old and bring in the new, to start with a clean slate. Unlike the last move into our new home, in which we loaded up everything including junk that later went to the dump, this time I am actually throwing things out and recycling. I dedicated an entire day (when I could have been writing) to this activity.
I also did a bit of Web research before our computers were taken down, having heard in passing of the benefits of feng shui (pronounced ‘fung-shway’), which as it turns out has nothing to do with the mysterious ways of the fungi. Actually, it is a 3,000-year-old art and science developed in China to balance energy and health. According to one Web site I perused, the perfect feng shui space is not some serene looking place of Zen-like perfection. And it’s a good thing too because I know that for me this is not attainable. Once I learned this much, I stopped reading and started writing.
Now as our deadline looms, it is time to put this baby to bed and start unpacking.
