The Natural Order of Things 13/11/2005 I smoke. Not from excessive brain activity or a general tendency towards spontaneous combustion, but because I happen to be addicted to nicotine. And, before I even start this post, let me say that I am aware that smoking is a disgusting habit and is very bad for my health. My advice to everyone is to give it up if you've started or don't start if you haven't. It really isn't worth the hassle.That's the disclaimer out of the way; now perhaps we can get busy on the post.A few months back, the particular brand of cigarettes that I smoke began to include picture cards with each pack. Each card is one of a series of twenty-five and has a painting of a famous American beauty spot, with some information about the place on the back of the card. The paintings are brightly-colored and clear, nothing special, but quite attractive; a style that we might call "simplified photographic".I quite liked the cards and started to collect them. Because there are so few in the series, I find that I now have several sets of them. They serve no useful purpose, unless one considers the information they provide educational, but they're nice. Too nice to throw away. My little pile of cards has grown from a thin stack to become a fat wad that sits beside my computer, constantly asking the question: What are you going to do with me?It's a question I can't answer. Try as I might, I just cannot think of a use for these cards; yet they remain too nice to just dump in the garbage. I am trapped in indecision. I toy with the idea of separating them into sets but this doesn't solve the problem of what to do afterwards.Collecting seems to be a tendency for many people. Sometimes we can give reasons for starting a collection, an investment for the future, imposing order upon chaos, or creating a showcase of beautiful things. But often our collections spring from a deeper urge that is hard to pinpoint. My cigarette card collection fits the latter category, I think. There is no reason for it apart from, umm, it's nice.Thinking about my motivation has led me to the conclusion that it's a part of my liking for order. Life is messy. No matter how we plan and prepare and sort, life has a way of confounding our attempts and insists on being rather more untidy than we expected. There are some people who appear to have mastered this tendency; their houses are masterpieces of neatness and precision, everything having a place and remaining in it. Apart from the fact that one hesitates to enter such a home for fear that one might spoil it, the owners have to be admired for their control of objects within spaces.Most of us aren't like that. We try, but things take on a life of their own to thwart our puny attempts at order. Magazines migrate from the rack to spread themselves on to chairs and tables and floors, videos multiply and start appearing in unexpected places, kids' toys wander everywhere through the house, tools never stay where you left them but turn up exactly where they're not needed. Our dreams of neatness are soon defeated by the chaotic tendencies of the world around us. We learn to live with it.Normally I cope quite well with this rebelliousness of material things; I can live with disorder for long periods of time. But deep within me there must be some sort of drive to a better way for, every now and then, I will be overcome by an urge to impose order. The problem then becomes the vastness of the task; the entire environment is too big to be tackled. So I settle on one place where I can make a start and I tidy and clean and arrange until order reigns in that one small corner of the world.At which point, I stop. The creation of an ordered spot within the whole chaotic universe is sufficient for me; it gives me something to focus upon to escape the general disorder, at least for a few days until things have begun to migrate and re-arrange themselves.It seems to me that my occasional collections of worthless stuff originate from the same impulse, this desire to have some ordered area in a constantly changing world. Take the cigarette cards, for instance. The moment I saw the first one, I knew that it could not be thrown away. A goal appeared on the horizon: to collect the whole series and thus create something that was neat, complete and ordered. The fact that the series was so small meant that I could not stop after completing one set; I just kept going.And now my need to have a tiny piece of order in the messy universe is fulfilled in this stack of cards. As long as this little pile stays obediently on one corner of my desk, the rest of the world is safe from my attempts to whip it into line. I'm happy and so is all creation.That's the theory, anyway. It is just as possible that I am merely obsessive-compulsive.Tags: Collections; Order; Chaos.Emigration BlogISAY's comment to this post has reminded me that we were going to establish some form of reciprocity between her blog and mine. She is writing about her experiences and thoughts as a recent emigrant from the States to England and, since I'm doing the same thing except the other way around, we figured it made sense to reference each other.Click on the heading to this addition to today's post and it will take you to ISAY's blog, Emigration Blog. Have a read; it's fascinating stuff, full of memories for me and a good insight into what it means to be an American living in Britain. She writes well, too.
Clive
ISAY How'd you do that? Put the comment on my latest post to my Emigration Blog and then take it off? i went back to look for it and reply and it was gone. You were telling me to have hope that I would find my kind of folks in Norwich. And so I shall. Impatience is an American quality I guess. At least I find the Brits who, like me, have degrees and experience and yet seem able to find nothing better than part time low level data entry, the Brits appear to have much greater tolerance for a period of time spent this way. Is it the benefits? Is it the unwillingness to "whinge", which I fear I will never develop and so will eventually succeed in offending everyone who knows me. How can I? After 20 years spent in that city where complaining is an art form, New York. Date Added: 13/11/2005
Gone Away Your first question: That's easy - I didn't remove it. How that happened, I don't know but I'm glad you remember the gist of it. :) Actually the Brits are supposed to be whiners par excellence - the Australians even refer to us as "whingeing poms". The difference between Brit whining and American is that the Brits do it behind the boss' back whereas the Americans are a bit louder in their complaints. My wife, Kathy, who is a Texan, reckons that its centuries of oppression by our Norman taskmasters that have brought this about and she may be right. Then there's the stiff upper lip thing; we regard silence or understatement in the face of suffering as a virtue. Also, there's that deep-seated wish of the Brit for a quiet life - hence our slowness to be goaded into war and our fury when it finally happens. I suppose that the Brits must be a fairly difficult race to understand. We have become adept at never saying what we mean in a straightforward manner - it's all intimation and innuendo and understatement and veiled sarcasm. But that's what I like about Americans - they say what they mean and mean what they say. So refreshing! Date Added: 13/11/2005
Twelvebirds Oh, I understand the whole task being too large to handle all at once, and concentrating on one spot does help give you that sense of accomplishment. Before I start ordering the chaos, however, I find it always helps to go out for lunch and then shopping. Who knows, you may find just the right sized bin to store the chaos in. Tomorrow is soon enough to fill the bin. Date Added: 13/11/2005
Gone Away Hah! It seems there's more than one way to skin a cat, Twelve. ;) Date Added: 14/11/2005
keeefer Out of interest do you keep ALL the cards or only one of each? Do you have 'swapsies' as we used to say in the playground at school (this isnt some horrible diesease but duplicate collectaible things that you can swap with an as yet unidentified third party). If so then you could always auction spare sets on ebay (do it and see what happens, some weirdo will probably pay good money for your unwanted organised chaos). I often think that when the guys/girls who started ebay took their business plan to the bank the strapline on the cover of the proposal was 'A fool and his money is soon parted'. I have, until now, managed to avoid buying anything at all off of ebaybut then im deeply skeptical of these things. Dont get me wrong i spend over the net with gay abandon. Eager, almost impatient, to ram my credit card number into the ether for every tom dick and hacker to have a peek at. Its just well.....lets face it ebay is the worlds biggest car boot sale. Again i have to add there is nothing wrong with car boot sales you can, i am assured, pick up a bargain quite often at such an event. Its just that well....call me snobbish but have you ever met the type of people who regularly attend car boot sales?????? eBay to me just screams 'Gathering place for trailer trash'. You know ive kind of side tracked myself again....oh well thats living in chaos for you. Date Added: 14/11/2005
Gone Away I keep all the cards, Keef; not knowing anyone who also collects them, I can't swap, even if I wanted to. However, I am prepared to offer you one of my spare sets for the special knockdown price of $24.99 (US, not Oz). This is the chance of a lifetime to see all the best places in America without ever having to leave the comfort of your armchair. And you won't even have to be seen amongst the crowd down at that rashy eBay place! :D Date Added: 14/11/2005
keeefer thanks, that sounds great. Unfortunately i have downloaded Google Earth and can see pretty much anywhere in America without having to subject myself to insane customs officials. Which eminds me. I was thinking the other day (somthing i try to avoid) If they find a terrorist cell in the Midlands, will they be known as suicide Brummers? Date Added: 14/11/2005
Gone Away I'm not sure on that one, Keef, but, if Bristol City Football Club ever run out of funds, would the headlines be "Bristols go bust"? Date Added: 14/11/2005
keeefer Bristols in recievership Date Added: 14/11/2005
Gone Away You mean I actually got something right for once? Date Added: 14/11/2005
keeefer Nope, that would be my headline :) Date Added: 14/11/2005
Gone Away I wasn't sure which you meant. Mine would be "Badly-handled Bristols in Care"... :D Date Added: 14/11/2005
keeefer If they just avoided debt you could have 'Bristols upheld by local businessman' Have you been watching reruns of benny hill out there? Date Added: 14/11/2005
Mad The yank sense of humour's getting to him, he's in full pun withdrawl! Twenty cc's of Red Dwarf, stat! Date Added: 14/11/2005
Gone Away Actually, yes, I have seen one or two, Keef... Date Added: 14/11/2005
Gone Away I'm bilingual, Mad. ;) Date Added: 14/11/2005
Janus Well someday when you need something to do and you feel like organizing you can put one of each of those cards in a photo album, one per page. Then you can go to each one of those places as soon as you can (When you are a famous best selling author) take more pictures of the same place and put it in your book. There. Problem solved. Now I shall see the new blog. Date Added: 14/11/2005
Gone Away As the TV commercial says, Janus: Brilliant! :D Date Added: 14/11/2005
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