We determined that a person’s home is a reflection of their inward life and their car a reflection of their ego.
I have been thinking about this same thing for a few years now, especially as regards my home.
My ego? My self-esteem has gone from poor to average to, if there's no self, irrelevant. Besides, I'm kind of shaped like my minivan these days, so I don't have much of a foundation for vanity.
But my home? Absolutely reflects my struggle for inner calm, and my inability to find it. The house has been fastiduously clean for maybe ten days in the past five years. Most of the rest of the time, it has absolutely looked like hell.
A friend once theorized that I surround my self with clutter and crap to keep other people away, and I think there might be something to that.
But I hate the way I live. I want that Zen-like minimalism.
Maybe that's why I spend so much time away from home. But mentally, emotionally, I take the clutter and mess with me. And it has more effect on me when I'm around other people that when I'm alone.
8 comments:
We determined that a person’s home is a reflection of their inward life and their car a reflection of their ego....
Insightful!
I've commented here before how I went from preppy (Remember that word? Ha, brings back such terrible memories!!) Rolex wearing asshole to granola minimalistic dweeb. Do you think there is a business in there somewhere? That is, showing people how to get rid of their CRAP? They have all these people nowadays who will o-r-g-a-n-i-z-e your stuff; what about just showing them how to get rid of it all together? What could I call it: Zen Busters (too mainstream) Get a Life (too judgemental) or what?
Interesting insight into yourself, mcarp.
As for my home, I was a total clean freak and have had to learn to let things go, allowing some clutter and filth to show. Actually being human and less than perfect, being at peace with at least some grime…of course I can only handle so much for so long and then I go on a clean freak bender. This is very reflective of the lessons I have had to learn personally and within my relationships.
Presently, I’m trying to become at peace with the cloud of cat hair I breathe and wear each day, as well as the hairballs my feet always seem to find.
As for my car, I was a Minivan Mama from 1995-2005 until a guy ran a stop sign sending me careening into a ditch. She helped me cart kiddos around, haul countless stuff, feel very tall and have fun adventures under the moonlight with a boyfriend. I sure do miss that ol’ Tank of Love. Now I drive a sensible, rental looking Grand AM. She’s not nearly as adventurous.
I think dzaster is onto a great idea helping people get rid of their crap. I would like to minimize my stuff. Sure would be a lot less to clean when I do go on a bender.
If it's all illusion, why does it stick to you when you fall in it?
Gotta sign off now, going shopping with Mom and Melissa. I'll try to remember it's not love, it's just stuff.
Funny, as in interesting, how I can now attempt to embrace a bit of clutter and grime, but have to delete a comment on your blog due to a grammatical error.
Hmmmm…
A person's home IS a reflection of their personality and their car a reflection of their ego?
Too strong an equivilence for me.
It smacks too much of a corollary of Social Darwinism, the greatest evil in middle America for the past 50 years.
Please don't take it too far.
Our homes and our stuff are also a reflection of our financial situation and that may have more to do with when and where and to whom we were born than any deep psychological insight.
Our cars can also be more reflective of other things than our ego. There are lots of people who are driving minivans for the reason of having children and dogs and a big yard and it has little to do with their ego.
The car I drove before the Miata was a little Honda Civic, 40 miles to the gallon, very commuter crunchy granola. Did my ego change that radically in a car lot in Edmond one particular day?
That doesn't seem likely.
I live in the house I do because I inherited a part ownership and could therefore buy it more cheaply than anyone else and keep it "in the family" since it formerly belonged to my great aunt.
Can't a messy house just be messy? Can't it just be because you live a busy life? Sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar and I think sometimes a cluttered house reflects nothing more than a lifetime of acquiring the things we like to have around us.
The MCARP I know is too complex and nuanced to be pidgeonholed so easily.
blogblah!
I would be MOST happiest living someplace where I needed NO car. (Alas, there are few such places left in the world.) And, that actually fits my ego because most of the time I'd rather be dead and floating around in the bosom of the Great Mystery rather than dealing with insurance forms, electric bills, anger and other ugly emotions, bodily functions, material things, stupid holidays like Father's day, computers and people. Thank gawd for great coffee. A good reason to live.
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