Writing and Cleaning the Toilet

In one of the books I purchased, On Writing Well, the author William Zinsser states, “Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills and meaningless jargon.” Later he makes a reference to Thoreau, the master of simplicity. Zinsser writes, “How can we achieve such enviable freedom from clutter? The answer is to clear our heads of clutter. Clear thinking becomes clear writing: one can’t exist without the other.”

One way to clear our heads is to remove clutter in our living space.  Though I hate to admit it, some of my best ideas have occurred to me while I am cleaning and organizing something. My living space represents my mind state.  If I can’t walk through a room because there is stuff strewn across the floor, how can I approach an idea? If my desk is a maelstrom of papers swarming around a computer, how can I choose one idea over another?

The way I clean my living space is the way I change my mind state. Determining what needs to go, what needs to stay and its relationship to other things requires awareness. This is what people do while sitting in meditation (it is also why people avoid meditating). Some people hide their mess and make a living space appear clean. What does that say about a person’s mind and their personal awareness?  Some people have rooms that are so distraught and full of stuff that no one is allowed to enter. What are people afraid others will see? For a writer, the phrase “cleaning out my closet” may have literal meaning.

Writing itself is an act of cleaning. I think that is why I like writing. I am good at organizing and removing what does not need to be there. It is also why I avoid writing. Writer’s block for me is procrastination. I don’t want to clean up after myself. I don’t want to write the next sentence knowing I will have to write it again and again. It’s like spilling a cup of water just so you can mop it up or making a bed before you sleep in it. But this is what writing is and this redundant process gives me purpose.

I read a Zen quote somewhere, “First you sit then you sweep the garden. Sometimes it is a very large garden.” I would say my mind is the garden and I have been off sweeping duty for a long time. I am a caretaker and cultivator of ideas the same way a gardener is a caretaker and cultivator of plants. I don’t pretend to be the originator of ideas any more than a gardener pretends to be the originator of life. My job is to sweep, remove the weeds and water the flowers. And it is a very large garden, indeed.

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