I Love Your Messiness
Efficiency, control and the beautiful messiness of being human
I label all my emails and archive them to have zero emails in my inbox. My kitchen must be clean and organized a particular way. And I spend way too much time writing because I am constantly editing.
I like structure. I don’t like messy.
But I do like efficiency as well. I’m constantly looking for better ways to get more done in less time. The technological advances over the past 20 years from the Internet, web applications and mobile devices have transformed our personal and professional lives. I continue my “do more” pursuit by testing the latest artificial intelligence on various tasks such as building websites and applications. In minutes, an entire website is published by just telling the AI what to build in a few sentences (“prompting”).
I can get more done than ever before.
But the capabilities of AI have grown dramatically and I have more to do. So life isn’t slowing down, it’s speeding up.
I’m losing control. Things are getting messy.
The Unmessy Life
Should the organized and efficient life be my goal?
In the Word on Fire article Artifice in Modernity and the Beautiful Messiness of Being Human, Annemarie Krall discusses the importance of humans remaining “messy” in the age of the artificial.
Krall shares a story about a Christian funeral for an elderly man in a Chinese village. People took the time to adorn the casket, carry it and process from the village down the road to the gravesite that they dug themselves. There they climbed into the grave, lowered the casket and covered it with dirt.
If you’ve ever been to a funeral, you know that there are much more efficient ways to handle such things. When she was a child, Krall’s father told her that he felt ashamed at her grandfather’s funeral for leaving the casket at the burial site. Her dad wanted to be the one to shovel the dirt. Tossing the dirt on the casket connects us to our departed friends and loved ones. In those moments, we are reminded of our shared destiny.
Krall points out the roots of the word artificial are facere (to make) and ars (art as technical skill). In other words, artificial means made by art (by man) rather than by God.
The tendency today is to associate artificial with something fake or bad. But things created by man can be beautiful. In reference to architecture, Krall points out:
“Buildings of this sort—that required time, attention, and craftsmanship to make and have details that exist not solely for the sake of efficiency—speak to our nature as contemplative creatures who have a purpose higher than and not reducible to the utilitarian.”
When the artificial, she says, goes too far in attempting to overcome the messiness of the human, it becomes antihuman. It seems to me that the artificial, and how we choose to use it, will determine whether it connects or divides us.
But what guides us on how to use the artificial?
Creating Eden
Johanna Duncan discusses the spiritual awakening trend in her Word on Fire article, The Church of Wellness Is Not Making the Cut. This awakening is the merger of wellness and spirituality, without the rules of religion. It’s the bundling and monetization of activities to help you feel healthier and spiritual. Duncan was offered this bundle: pottery, tarot cards, Pilates and yoga. Your spirituality would grow and get you closer to…something.
Spirituality is attractive because it’s controllable. And it’s controllable because it’s vague. You are your own leader. And it’s not new. Duncan states that, in the 1800s, New Thought and Christian Science promoted a “mind-cure,” where physical health was sought through one’s mental and spiritual state. Another spirituality wave also occurred in the 1960s and 1980s.
At times I find myself wandering off alone in my artificial garden, seeking my own Tree of Wisdom to finally take full control. Here I reflect on all that I have accomplished.
But in entering such a world, what is really being sought? The sound of our own voices? Or is it something else? Perhaps something hiding?
Divine Hiddenness
Indeed, that which you do not see is always present according to Dr. Chad Engelland in his Word on Fire article, The Scandal of Divine Hiddenness. God is the Creator of all that is seen and unseen and is therefore on a different dimension than us. We are part of the seen, so God’s hiddenness is natural. However, because God is not seen directly, the secular tendency is to look for a replacement.
The modern secular world scatters seeds that land in our personal gardens. Here the artificial sprouts. Soon, our creations will see and hear us. Robots will walk in our homes and tend our personal gardens.
Our world will soon be very different.
The Choice
With or without the artificial, the choice will be the same.
I can’t control what happens. I can control, to a degree, what I do and how I respond. But I can always control why I do either. While every day has the same number of seconds, there is pressure to utilize the efficiency of the artificial to do more.
But instead of simply choosing to do more, I’d be better served by asking who my choices are for and following this guide: sometimes for me, more times for others, but always for God.
Peace.