The Filth Element - Reach for a Higher Order

By Cyndi Seidler
05/18/06

People often get confused between dirt and disorder. They are different, although they do have something in common: both can make you sick.

You see, while one carries harmful bacteria, the other carries mental distress. In either case, they both have a gloomy aftermath.

So why live with either one?

That's the question many scientists have not yet asked. However, in recent research, it was found that people do have the ability to make a choice with regard to any aspect of their life. This could go down in history as some great new revelation, I suppose.

The theory is that, while some people still believe in a higher power making choices for them, they can still think for themselves, despite any higher power, and therefore perhaps accidentally make a choice by themselves.

This concept has been demonstrated conclusively in my own interaction with people. There was this woman, for example, that I was asked to organize for a television show. She lived in an apartment by herself with a couple cats and a small dog. I was told the place was extremely cluttered.

Upon entering this woman's apartment, I could immediately see that "extremely cluttered" was too mild a description of this woman's situation. I felt that, if I survived this clean-up operation, which was both filthy and massively cluttered, I would need all the higher power I could get to live long enough to tell my grandchildren about life. And, since my only daughter isn't even married yet, that time should not be too soon.

I couldn't back out. The show was scheduled to shoot in a couple days. So, on the day of the shoot, I brought a team of three other organizers in. I warned them ahead of time, but I knew there was no way to describe it in full; they just had to see for themselves.

The field producer and woman went over what needed to be done, and the camera crew set up cameras in various places around the room to film us "in action." I knew why they didn't stay, and who could blame them.

Oddly, the woman was dressed real nice and had her make-up applied to make her appear quite beautiful. If you saw her walking down the street, you would never guess that she lived the way she was living. By choice? She says not.

There were a lot of things to blame for her mess, she was saying in her interview. I didn't remember hearing anything about her situation being her fault in any way though. And, having it fixed for her would solve all her problems, she reported.

That came up against my own theory that clutter is not the actual problem; that it is actually the result of a real problem, and that clutter is really only a symptom of an underlying problem.

Oh well. I wasn't going to be around after the clutter issue was solved to find out if this woman would experience any more problems.

The crew finally left me and my team to get started. We had our masks and gloves on and were ready to tackle the project. I felt a space suit would have given us the proper protection we needed, but we didn't have any way to get our hands on one.

Each one of us took different places in the room and began lifting things from the debris of stuff. Then, almost in unison, each of us let out a squeal as we picked up the first items.

Out came hoards of cockroaches. The insect eggs and dust also came flying out. We ran out the apartment like four girls being chased by a serial killer with an axe.

The producers were not paying us enough to kill ourselves, that was for sure. And, I was certain that it was too late to negotiate higher fees for the kind of risk we were taking. I then wondered if the TV show "Fear Factor" would like to use this woman's apartment and might pay us more for finding it. After all, their contestants would find this real scary. For me, it was my worse nightmare.

The short story is that we had to finish the job. There was no choice in the matter. And, we had six hours to do it so that they could shoot the "after" shots with the woman that day. So, we did it.

By the end of the day, we had the room cleared and swept over with a vacuum to pick up animal hair, insect eggs, and dust. The dog and cat feces that were found during clean up had been disposed of earlier.

The prior agreement I had with one of the producers was to come a second day and do the kitchen. It was in the same condition. At the end of the day I informed the producer that all the money in the world would not bring me back unless the place was fumigated first.

That was the end of it for me and my team. The producers hired a cleaning crew for the woman's kitchen next.

When the segment aired on television, I watched to find that our six hours of labor was seen in fast motion over three seconds. And, the interview with the woman viewing her living room after it was de-cluttered revealed that all her problems were solved and she was going to live happily ever after. She also made the choice, right there on television, that she was going to keep it this way.

That's show-biz for you.

Copyright 2006 Cyndi Seidler. All Rights Reserved.