Why are my shambles so neat?
During my college days (undergrad especially), my friends and I liked to be dramatic.
It wasn’t uncommon to lament over something menial by telling the offender, “You hate my soul!” complete with unnecessary hand-to-forehead despair. We also played a great game called “Who Would You Hit in the Face with a Shovel?” as a way to virtually get out our anger with someone who had wronged us. Someone even introduced a yard-long beach shovel to pass around at our Friday night margarita hotspot. Of course, we learned that tequila and shovels don’t mix quite as well as one would imagine.
One of my personal favorites was declaring, “My life is in shambles!” when I felt myself losing control over one thing or another. However, being somewhat of a neat-freak and hyper-organizer, being in shambles is often compartmentalized. For me, I deal with one thing going poorly by focusing my efforts to bolster other areas of my life. Sometimes it works out swimmingly by allowing me to stay positive and deal with the situation. It can also lead to a life-sized domino effect by taking down whatever happens to be closest.
For me, being “Neatly in Shambles” is keeping an outward appearance of normalcy when inside things are in a constant flux of imploding and rebuilding. Hopefully, these shambles won’t add me to your list of those you’d hit in the face, with a shovel or otherwise.
