Bee, ladybug, cricket, or butterfly: a TV show
An essay…
Tyson and I like to watch shows together. We have been doing that since we started dating. It is like a bonding experience for us. Sometimes we even have a picnic in front of the TV or a pickinicky as I like to call them.
Recently we started watching a new show: High Potential on Hulu. The show is about a brilliant (160 IQ) but unrealized woman named Morgan who cleans offices for a living. While cleaning the room in which a crime board was displayed, she noticed at the missed inconsistencies and rearranged the board. Then, the reactions next day prompted an investigation which led to watch the surveillance video of the previous night. She was called in and in spite of everyone’s skepticism about her abilities, the captain hired her as a consultant. And as you can imagine, every episode is a mixture of funny, quirky, and witty dialogues. Each episode shows layers of her brilliant mind at work. Her mind is full of seemingly unrelated knowledge held together by the fact that she can’t forget anything. The show is engaging not just because of her character but also because of her performance. The actress, Kaitlin Olson, sells it.
In the last episode we watched, Morgan starts to explain organizational styles as bees, ladybugs, crickets, and butterflies. Her explanations were quick and fiery but the concept stayed with me and I kept thinking of it. I asked Tyson which one he thought I was and we were thinking I would overlap each because my organizing depends on the room. But, as it turns out she was referring to a declutterring system developed by Cassandra Aarssen. Her system is detailed in her site Clutterbug. As a self proclaimed former slob, she felt the need to change. She developed a system based on the bugs: the bee, the ladybug, the cricket, and the butterfly. I was fascinated. I took the quiz she has on her site and the results were that I was a bee. As per the site, my organizational style is as follows:
A Bee is a visual person who often has a project on the go! Bees are very organized people, but they also prefer to “see” their important and frequently used items, rather than store them away in closets or containers. Bees also like to keep their tools, papers and other supplies out until they are finished the job, often piling them until they have a chance to put them away “properly”.
Bees almost always come with a lot of stuff. Whether it be exercise equipment, scrapbooking supplies, photographs, art supplies, books, cooking and baking utensils, woodworking materials, home improvement tools or any other supplies you use during your hobby, it can quickly take over your space.
And I have to say the quiz was right on the dot. Especially when it comes to my art studio and supplies. Every so often, I have this urge to reorganize everything because things get out of hand. I call those moments exorcism. Before I found out I was a bee, guess what I did? I spent part of Saturday cleaning and rearranging my office at school. This is after I spent last week reorganizing my studio at home for which I bought these nice $5 baskets at my favorite store, Target. When I read the description of the bee, my approaches made so much more sense. My eternal dilemma is how to have everything on site and yet organized? No, I do not like pegboards at all.
At the bottom of it all for me is this: declutterring and exorcising are necessary for me when things get to be too much. My weaknesses are art supplies and books. Let’s not talk about shoes, especially tennis shoes. But, books and art supplies just rock my world. Oh! And sketchbooks. I can’t pass them up. At an art supply store, I am usually both overwhelmed and excited. So many beautiful items!!
High Potential is interesting in many ways. It is not a super profound dialogue like other shows such as those by Aaron Sorkin. Or shows like The Diplomat, The Americans, and Midnight Mass to name a few. HP is quirky, weird, eccentric in a way, and odd. It does touch a nerve for me though. For a long time growing up, I was not certain I was capable, smart, or even intelligent. But there were key people in my life at different key stages who kindly provided the affirmation I needed to take risks. I take the risks and then think about them later. It does provide me with interesting learning opportunities. Like teaching Art Appreciation. It is a lot of work because it is a first time prep but even with the feeling of not knowing what steps I am taking, I am loving it.
Being a bee, ladybug, cricket, or butterfly is not just about the clutter. I also see it as a way to look and think about life. Whether we think about things, or simply react, or compartmentalize, or reveal too much. Each response needs the appropriate space. Just like our clutter.
Love,
Alma