The Balance Between my Car and my Kitchen

After taking the groceries out of the back of my truck today and gazing upon the contents of the bed I should be ashamed. My truck, simply put, resembles a garbage dump. That is not to say I dont clean it several times a month, but the collection of empty bottles, the case the bottles came in, the spilled seed for feeding the ducks, the poker chip case, the baby backpack, and the portable poddy rather speak for themselves. Additionally, other random items that roll around in there included a box of couplers for the dripline, some yellow nylon rope, a quilt, corn husks, and a red igloo cooler. I won't bother providing a description of the back seat where the kids sit and the condition of their car seats, just leave that to your imagination.

Busy mom or lazy mom you make the call. They say you can tell alot about a person by their garbage and messes. If a total stranger, God forbid, looked in the back of my truck they could easily ascertain that I have a toddler, feed some kind of fowl, drink a goodly amount of water, that I hike with my kid, ate some corn on the cob, and I recently participated in a poker game of some kind. Just what do the curteousy clerks who put the groceries in the back of the truck at Nob Hill think? I bet they have seen it all.

In contrast, at any one time, a snapshot of my kitchen counters is the polar opposite of my truck. Clean, free, and unfettered I would like to call it. The counter tops are basically as uncluttered as physically possible. Crumbs or spills are wipped up fastidiously and I regularly microwave my sponges such that bacteria does not even get a chance to grow thus spreading pestulence on wipeable surfaces. If and outsider looked upon the counters I think they might feel free to eat from them. So maybe a stranger would say neat freak in a funny voice, while roling their eyes back in their head.

So, what is one to make of it? I think everybody has to have their own garbage dump. Likewise, one place close to purity or with earnest cleanliness. It is another layer of the yin and yang in our lives. Without it a person could not appreciate or recognize the other. Personally I find it a freedom accepting that I can be a pig somewhere and a clean freak somewhere else. Occasionally, the kitchen becomes the mess and the truck gets cleaned and a roll reversal occurs for but the briefest of moments, but in the end these two portions of my life fall back into order/disorder. They know their places...