It's unplanned (most of the time). It's unsettling (for some of us). It's unnecessary (especially when it takes the place of organization). But it's precise. And it's impressive. And it really is ok. After being a camp counselor for less than a week, I have come to embrace the artistic element of a mess.
Children are inevitably messy. Give them a box of crayons and watch each crayon tumble to the floor, their wrappers swirling to the ground and their sturdiness unmatched by tiny fists. Give them a granola bar and find a corner of it here and a piece of the wrapper there. Give them a board game and uncover pawns three days later on the opposite side of the room. There is no organization to (most) of their little lives; there is no artistic intent. Yet a child can create the most outlandish inventions and ingenious games amidst, and I am coming to believe partially because of, the mess.
Not every child is messy. I was quite the opposite, in fact. Everything had it's place in my world, and it would in everyone else's if I had anything to do with it. However, I was not concerned with perfect labeling or hiding unsightly objects or color coding or picking up every little thing. If kids color-coded their crayons, how would they have time to use them?
I am, of course, still a strong advocate of organization. But I have come to realize that it can have its superfluousness. We organize to the point of disuse. Life becomes too pretty to touch. We sit on the outside when we could be in the middle of it all.
When the end of a camp day rolled around and the kids were disinterested of any more structure, I gave them paper and crayons (which mostly ended up on the floor). When clean-up time rolled around, they put all the crayons back in the box. Everything was organized - but it really wasn't. The crayons had been organized in a giant cardboard box with dividers, separated by color. It wasn't my box of crayons, and I began to fret. Seriously?? Seriously.
What is the point of organizing crayons by color? I asked myself. Nothing. There is no point. Maybe it makes each color easier to find, but what's the fun in that? When you can't find a pink, you use a magenta, and all of a sudden, your picture becomes a little more unique.
And such is life - you're not always going to be able to find a pink, even when that's what you really wanted. Part of the game is about what you set your heart on, but the other part is what you end up with and what you choose to do with that. An organized crayon box has no adventure; it has no surprises. An organized crayon box is pretty predictable.
I'm not encouraging you to embrace being messy but rather to simply embrace the mess. You will come across one every now and again, no matter how organized you are. There are days when I sweep the cafeteria at camp five times a day and still manage to find a Lego as soon as I am about to leave for the day.
There will always be something else to find on the floor. There will always be another mess to clean up. So maybe we should just let ourselves live in that mess for a little longer next time rather than be so obsessed with restoring structure. Who knows what we could find.
