Clutter

Entropy is a curious property to the universe.  It is the principle that promulgates lots of frustration; making hot mugs radiate out to room temperature, making cool ice water warm up to room temperature, making room temperature acclimate to outside temperature, and sometimes making outside temperature feel like a sticky wet diaper, which is also the result of entropy.  Entropy says – well, technically entropy doesn’t ‘say’ anything, but it is a good name for a good explanation of things running down the hill of organization over time – that a clean, organized room will go to a messy room over time if no work is done to it, that a well-oiled machine will rust and break down over time if no grease is applied, and that teeth will decay over time if you don’t brush and floss them.  Practically everyone has a job because of entropy.  Some people even made it their job to fabricate the effects of entropy in an organized way, as if that’s not an oxymoron:  organized chaos.  Who, you may ask?  Why, those who designed the clutter hanging from the walls of many American-based restaurants such as T.G.I.Friday’s, Cracker Barrel, Chili’s and others.  While it may have felt a trifle bit unsafe to be eating biscuits and gravy under a plowshare dangling from the ceiling, there was something quintessentially patriotic about it.  Though I’ve never played much billiards or listened to Elvis Presley from a record player, I still felt at home while eating an appetizer combo at Friday’s with billiard balls and 1950s du-op paraphernalia hovering over the salt and pepper shakers.  But as of late, many of these restaurants are overhauling their classic look for a more chic and sleek appeal.  Dispensing with the yard sale memorabilia as the décor of choice, the new trend is modern minimalism with a digital flair.  While there’s nothing inherently good or bad here, I confess I do distrust possible lurking motivations.  To steer a culture in a different direction, the members of the culture must be extracted from their past.  It takes a long time to unhook a train and hook it up to another engine.  The process is slow, dull and tedious.  But the result is thousands and thousands of tons of cargo going a different direction.  Unhooking a culture from it’s past is likewise dull and slow, and even a bit tedious.  Sometimes it even takes on very subtle forms, like the clutter hanging from a wall in a restaurant.  But once the new engine takes over, there’s no telling where the train may be headed; and that has the potential to be quite frightening.  Once you remove a people from their past, you can project them in any direction…train’s in the station, the guys in blue and white striped suspenders are unhooking the culture engine…anybody want to help with a reform?