Door Number One, Two or Three?

Do you remember the game show of the 60s and 70s called “Let’s Make a Deal” with Monty Hall as the host?  His show was also during the era of Bob Barker of the “Price is Right” for several years, which I believe is still on television in the U.S.  I remember watching the prospective contestants dressed in all kinds of costumes bringing with them all sorts of things from their homes hoping to catch the attention of Monty Hall so they could make a deal to exchange what they had, for what was behind one of those doors.  Oh man all of us were hoping it would be a car and not a cow, or a washing machine and not something ludicrous.  Oh the show was hilarious everyday, “Leeeettt’s Make a Deeeeaaaall!!”  Oh and of course don’t forget the money he would have in his pocket.  Sometimes it would truly be worth the trade and other times not.  Of course you thought you knew better than the contestants because you’re on the outside of the television looking in.  LOL!  Anyhoo, I’ve been thinking about three other doors lately because I’ve outgrown my living quarters and must search for something larger.  No I don’t plan to win a cow from Monty Hall, but I do need space, the final frontier so I can have an occasional lunch or dinner with Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock.  

 

I’ve had a few people visit this small place and only two including the proprietor, who happened to be male, said I had too much stuff.  All the women agreed with me that I need a larger place.  Thank God for the eyes of women which see the big and bigger picture.  :-)

Depending on the eyes in your head you may say one of two things:  1) that I’m unorganized and cluttered or 2) this place is entirely too small.  Well I’m inclined to agree with number 2 for if you stayed long enough you would see there is a method to this seemingly madness.  I learned that phrase from my Richmond sisters a few years ago “there’s a method to my madness”.  What does that mean?  It means a place for everything and everything in its place.  It means that just because you cannot see your way through my maze, and just because you don’t understand my system doesn’t mean it doesn’t make sense.  I have a method, a way of doing things, a system (my English teachers in VA would not allow us to use the word we were defining within the definition of the word etc. for it did not show them that we indeed understood the meaning. :-)) for maneuvering through not only this place, but the myriad things in my life that I must accomplish on a daily basis.  And so do you.  The question is:  have you chosen door number one, number two or number three:  Are you (am I) organized, disorganized, or unorganized?  Hmmmm.  (four m’s that time)

I love playing with words, but most of all I love understanding them so I can use them correctly, especially now learning again the language of another culture makes this extra important for me.  I wonder for instance why or how they can say “pourquoi” for “why” when “pour” means “for” and  “ quoi” means “what”, thus the equivalent of our “for what?”.  Why (hmm, pun intended LOL!) can’t they find or have one word that translates “why” rather than confusing us with “for what”, for we say “for what” also?  Okay, I’ve gone around the barn for a minute and yes, Monty Hall does have a cow back there so let’s deal with this topic.

Okay we know that the word “organized” is in “disorganized” and “unorganized” and it is the positive state of the three.  To be organized means to be. . . well, organized.  LOL!!  To have things in order, whatever those things may be, to bring about a happy conclusion most, if not all of the time.  I didn’t get that from Webster’s but I think you understand it okay.  If not, send me Webster’s definition and I will add it to the end of this blog as a footnote.  Now to be disorganized doesn’t mean there’s no organization at all.  It’s more like being MISorganized:  Organized in the not-so-best way for the task or mission you’re trying to accomplish.

 

For instance, one of my favorite passages in the Bible is when Jethro (nope, not from the Beverley Hill Billies) comes to see his son-in-law Moses who has just brought the Israelites into the wilderness out of Egypt where they had been in slavery for 430 years.  One day he observed Moses at work “judging” cases like in our judicial systems we know today.  It might have been an episode of Law and Order, or Law and Order SUV?  Or is it SVU? :-)  Moses was the judge, jury, stenographer, swear-in police, the cops with the handcuffs, you get the picture.  He was organized, but not in the best way, for he could not be everything for everyone.  It was taking him forever to get the job done.  He was really dis- or mis- organized.  He needed help reorganizing his way of doing things and his father-in-law, a Midianite priest had just the wisdom he needed.  He advised Moses to set up lower courts and judges, which we know our current judicial system to now be, at least in the United States.  Wow!!  What wisdom.  What knowledge of organization.  I could use a Jethro right about now.  So Moses took his advice and reorganized his method and it wasn’t so mad anymore.

That brings us to being unorganized.  Now to be un-something means to not be something, or to no longer be something you formerly were.  It has now been Undone for instance.  To be unorganized means there’s no organization at all.  The place, the room, the business, the group lacks organization (oh my English teacher would have my grade for this.).  Order!!!  There’s the word I’m looking for.  So for instance you’re forming a new choir and the folks are all excited and have come on time with their notebooks and mini-cassettes and MP3’s and you start the rehearsal singing a simple song everyone knows, but everybody is just singing what feels good to them and what is natural and you’re getting a cacophony of. . . noise.  Ahem.  Sounds like there’s no organization for no one knows really what they should be singing.  Maybe they are good where they come from, but for YOUR group they need to be. . . organized anew, afresh to meet the mission of your group, not the ones from where they come or don’t come. 

I’ll admit, some organization is better than none, in most situations, but sometimes it’s best to start at ground zero, for where there is disorganization the challenge is to prove that the current organization is not meeting the needs of the situation and the desires of the mission statement.  (Oh, yes there needs to be a mission statement for therein lies the goal of the organization in the first place.)  Something needs to change, as Marvin sang years ago, “a change is gonna come”;  but not by osmosis, accident & not by itself.  It must be done on purpose and with a goal in mind.  Otherwise why waste the time?  Those two males who thought I have too much stuff did not offer any real suggestions or solutions.  They just felt I needed to get rid of things not realizing everything I have is for a purpose.  They brought with them no mission statement for my organization, thus what they had to say didn’t help me much.  I  just  need  space. ;-)  You see, I refuse to purchase things for no reason and I refuse to add anything to my life if I have no where to put it when I’m not using it.  That’s the beginning of clutter and hoarding, and becoming a packrat.  Nada.  Pas pour moi.

Now, if I were unorganized, they would have grounds for their perspective, but truly I’m organized.  This is just one of those topics I wanted to share for those three doors, I mean words have been on my mind for some time.  If you drive or ride in a taxi or bus in Paris, not knowing how the traffic patterns work, you will believe there is no organization whatsoever to the department of motor vehicles here, and you will wonder how in the world do they avoid having more accidents than they do.  Well, there’s a method to their madness and to an outsider it is truly mad.  But to them, it’s just right and will be for many years to come.  Door number one, two or three?  Monty, I’ll take door number. . . hmmm