Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter
Only Human
Lavender Ice, if you haven’t heard is the new color for my daughter’s room. The color is not quite purple, but more of a blue with a tinge of pink, evoking a bit of a fleeting summer sunset, captured on our walls. The Perfect Daughter usually has a few summer projects on the calendar, some tasks that refresh and inspire and give us a good start come fall.
As we painted away, we listened to a National Public Radio program about early humans, among them, the Neanderthal, Homo floresiensis or “hobbit” as he was known, and the Denisovans. These early humans bore only faintest physical family resemblance to modern humans. But what we did undeniably share, according to scientists, was a trait to decorate. Anthropologists have found that early hominids rubbed ochre into their skin for no apparent reason, in what scientists think was a purely symbolic gesture. Ochre-tinted skin had no practical function: it didn’t camouflage or protect the skin. It just looked nice, like Lavender Ice.
So, as I painted, I thought, decorating is what makes us human? Then my mind went on a little trip. After all, it is summertime. Did apes collect seashells? Did they gaze at the sunset and try to make it last? Maybe collecting is another characteristic that makes us human. If you want to get poetic about it, you could say that it is the instinct to search for beauty distinguished man from ape. Or you could have a Marxist interpretation: the hoarding of objects and trying to differentiate ourselves on the basis of those objects is both our defining feature – and our downfall.
I am enthralled with the idea that decorating is what makes us human. Pre-historic Neanderthal caves and Manhattan apartments share a pattern of adornment. What we collect to beautify our space is maybe not so modern after all. The very thing The Perfect Daughter loves about her work is the humanity of the home. Those seashell collections! That inspiring art on the walls! How it all comes together for no real reason other than we like to have it around us.
So, since it is August, I’m not going to implore you to stay out of the gift shops when you are on vacation, or to throw anything out or give anything up. Instead I say: Give yourself a break and collect some seashells. After all, you are only human!