On Serendipity

Every once in a while I become completely disgusted with my inability to find anything, and I spend a morning completely organizing, alphabetizing, and discarding. I think I’ve even read a few books on how to do this, and all those books are full of assurances on how great it is to be able to find that book you need right there on the shelf where it’s supposed to be, those car keys right on the table where they always go, etc. Being organized is the key to efficiency, they say. It’s the key to maximizing your time. It’s the key to zen-like peace and serenity as you wave goodbye to the frustration of lost shoes when you’re already ten minutes late and trying to get out the door.

So I’ll begin.

And then, once I start, I realize how truly wonderful it is to be disorganized. Because then, at the moment when you suddenly take yourself in hand, you get to have the pleasure of discovering lost stuff. You experience serendipity.

Isn’t serendipity a lovely word? I think this may be one of my favorites in the English language. And it’s a word you’ll never really get unless you’ve actually experienced it for yourself….like the word “ticklish.” Serendipity is a delightfully satisfying word--the word that alone in our capacious vocabulary embodies that feeling of possibility and renewed chances. Serendipity is that lovely surprised feeling you get when you find all sorts of stuff you’d entirely forgotten about--all those projects that I meant to do that seemed so brilliant or inspired at the moment, but alas! No time. So into the inbox they went….never to be thought of again.

All these ideas resurface when I organize. So I find them and remember, and I feel invigorated and motivated and as if life is a full and surprising thing as I clean out, thinking about how great it’s going to be to actually do these things once I have all that extra time, because I’ll be so organized.

Unfortunately, after that there’s the next day--the organized day. The day when there’s nothing lying around to surprise me. Nothing to think about but efficiency and work.

And then I get depressed.