Clutter
Marie Kondo is having a moment. If you haven’t heard, she’s a Japanese “tidying expert” with a binge-watchable Netflix series and a New York Times bestseller. Now, I’ve neither read her book nor seen the her show, but I have read a number of reviews of her book and philosophy, as well as watched some interviews.
The core of her tidying philosophy was simply and profoundly expressed in an interview with Stephen Colbert on The Late Show when she stated (through a translator, link below):
“We all have problems tidying our homes, but it’s not just that, Stephen, we all have clutter in our hearts and that’s what needs tidying.”
This sentiment is a restatement of something I’ve long held to be true. I can’t say for certain whether I’ve encountered Marie Kondo or her ideas somewhere in my past, but I’ve long been a proponent of the idea that there is a correlation between uncluttering your life and uncluttering your soul.
Our exterior environment is, at least partially, a reflection of our interior environment.
One of the core questions Marie Kondo asks in her tidying “method” is whether an object “sparks joy.” While not a bad metric for determining whether an object should be kept or discarded, perhaps a less emotionally driven and more deeply reflective question might be:
How does any given object I own connect with my deepest values?
If I say I value the environment and care for economic justice, but most of what I own is manufactured on another continent, by large corporations that don’t pay their employees well, I ought to seriously consider what values my stuff embodies.
The things we choose to own (or not own) tell part of the story of who we are. Or at least who we’d like to think we are.
In a similar way we collect beliefs and experiences that pile up in our souls creating spiritual clutter we have difficulty sifting through. Beliefs and convictions that hamper our ability to relate to God and other people.
Beliefs that were helpful in the past can become obstacles that prevent us from authentically encountering God in the present. Lists of rules for how to live can cause us to forget to see people as people, with real lives filled with triumphs and failures.
Every so often I have to ask myself: Do my beliefs help me grow closer to God and other people in authentic and life giving ways? Or do my beliefs harm others and narrow my understanding of God to something manageable?
Is there room in my soul for God to enter in, or only enough space for all the beliefs I’m clinging to about God?
Sometimes we have to let go, and that can be hard. There aren’t five steps, seven tips or any rigid process for this kind of spiritual tidying that I can recommend. There is no substitute for the hard work of self-reflection, deep thinking, and wrestling with what you believe.
But afterwards, it certainly is nice to have room in your heart for company.
Marie Kondo’s appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert:
