Outside of cute
kitchen message boards and restaurants with the evening specials, few people
use slates anymore. You know, the fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous
metamorphic rock (that was the definition that sprang into your mind, right?) Laura Ingalls Wilder would clasp as she sat in
that one-room schoolhouse on the prairie.
When I was
teaching, and had time at the end of the day, I’d head to the girls’ room down
the hall with my green plastic bucket. I’d fill it up and return to my
classroom where I’d dip my giant sponge and wash away the day from my
chalkboard. I might re-enter the detention list or a homework assignment, but
the most part, it was a fresh start.
Maybe I liked the
idea of a fresh start because it’s a close relative to my need for visual
order. I could never understand those people whose filing system is composed of
towers of paper. Before I begin a task
requiring any sort of thinking, I have to clear my desk of the notepads, old
mail, and gloves looking for a mate. When I’m cooking, to avoid using chili
powder instead of cinnamon, or baking powder instead of baking soda, I have to
empty the kitchen counter and sink before I begin.
An uncluttered
surface can recharge my mind and soul. I can dodge real housecleaning far
longer than I’d like to admit, but after I’ve sorted out a drawer or cleared
the shoes from my closet floor I can reach inner peace. New shelf paper can
leave me with a sense of tranquility that’ll stick around for the rest of the
day.
These are all
re-sets, new beginnings, another reason I enjoyed teaching. In September I was able to start over again
with a new set of students and the optimism that came with a new year.
Funny, people write about the rebirth brought
each year by Spring, but this is reversed in the teaching world. Spring is the
culmination of the school year, when everything finishes up.
I'm the same way. I like a fresh start, a reset. I think it's why I enjoy cleaning -- restoring an environment to order soothes my soul!
ReplyDeleteYou have just explained my husband's habit of using resets to begin a project. I am afraid that I'm really a piler, not a filer. :-)
ReplyDeleteThere was a very large slate blackboard in the dining room of my childhood home. My brother took it away at some point. I wonder which ex-wife pitched it.
ReplyDeleteI am a neat freak on some days. I have mellowed as I have aged,thank goodness. I never thought how education starts when most things end
ReplyDeleteI've been uncluttering, drawer by drawer. Just did the junk jewelry drawer.
ReplyDeleteFunny, in a post reply this morning I said that I remember blackboards from my childhood. Are they still around? I even had a slate tablet for a while, that’s how old I am.
ReplyDeleteI too am the sort of person who can only work from a clean ‘slate’. I need to have desks and shelves and kitchen surfaces clear before I can get down to work.
But ask me to clean the house and I suddenly find that I am not really all that bothered.
Ah...
ReplyDeleteThere is renewal each semester or year when new students restart us. I worked year_ round, and that meant new students coming into the school every month.
Now I know what my problems were. I never got off to a clean start. I taught during the chalkboard era. I used my board all day every day. My clothes were full of chalk dust. sometimes the caretaker cleaned the boards. I was the teacher who didn't use his desk as the pile was too high on it. Well, okay, there are opposites. I understand what makes people tick. Good story. It brought back many memories. I still like chalk boards and the smell of chalk.
ReplyDeleteBecause I am a pile type instead of a reset type might explain how I got garlic powder in my coffee and cinnamon on my turkey burger the other day. Garlic coffee sucks but the cinnamon was surprisingly tasty on turkey. I really need to put my spices away.
ReplyDeleteI always have countertops ready to cook or bake. The kitchen is one area I cannot stand clutter of any kind. My desk is another story...it is a catch all and I have many projects going at once so it is a challenge sometimes!
ReplyDeleteThe ending of the school year is like an exciting celebration, we always used to have an end of school picnic...a bittersweet time to say goodbye to your teacher:)
I clean my kitchen before cooking too, mostly because it's so damn tiny, there just isn't room for two lots of messy dishes.
ReplyDeleteI understand about clearing the slate though. Nothing settles me better than a good tidy up and sorting out of stuff.
I always thought baking powder and baking soda were the same thing.
I agree entirely with your approach I just never managed to achieve it.
ReplyDeletewell, I hate to cook in a messy kitchen so if it is, I have to clean it first. and my drawing table has to be cleaned off before I can start on a full size art work but other than that, it tends to be cluttered here.
ReplyDelete