Keeping our options open.
Ordering, cataloging, categorizing and the like all close off options. The process
of specifying, of clearly identifying something, marks it not only as what it
is, but also as what it isn't. Celebrating miscellany, on the other hand, attempts
to delay closing off options as much as possible. Seen in this light, making room
for miscellany is a means of continuing to sit on the fence, to not take sides.
We find ourselves confronted, from a different angle, with the
cocktail party metaphor, in which we choose not to mingle with someone in
the hope that somebody more interesting will perhaps enter the room.
Is this really such a bad thing? Probably not, but perhaps there's something inherently
immature about it.
Go to: Just another aspect of arrested development?,
or
Go to: Please organize me.