What a great word! The word can be used in so many ways and in so many situations and, contrary to many words, everyone understands what you are trying to do – lump disparate items together without really identifying what they are or do… or even if they are related in any fashion. It’s where you can ‘put’ thoughts or ideas that you don’t know what to do with yet and still, don’t want to lose. To me, miscellaneous is like a junk drawer – a place to put ‘things’. The problems can be: actually finding what you are hunting for when you open the junk drawer and/or a kind of outta sight outta mind reality. But there’s also the possibility of… discovery!
Actually the outta sight, outta mind can be fun because once you start rummaging around in the Miscellaneous ‘drawer’, the item(s) you come across can spark new thoughts about what to do with them. I think we should be calling our junk or miscellaneous drawer, the ‘Creative’ drawer as you can develop new uses for what you find. Facetious? Only a tad. However, is it ‘junk’ you put into the drawer? Or are they items that could be used in the future and thus possessing value? This is a kind of ‘pack rat’ mentality related to ideas and thoughts.
I’ve always appreciated the word ‘miscellaneous’ and when returning to that drawer or file, discover some fascinating items. Items that I had forgotten I had and subsequently repurchased, items that have new uses now, items that send me off on a tangent… What a ‘fun’ way to engage the mind when you rummage through miscellaneous. Occasionally you actually find the item you rummaged in the drawer for in the first place. An item that you wanted – this is always a pleasant surprise.
As you can see, I really like ‘miscellaneous’. It’s a place that I go to and attempt to organize on a somewhat regular basis. Part of the reason is that I seriously do enjoy re-discovery and that can be easily accomplished in miscellaneous land. Part of the reason is that I’m a tangent-er and this often provides a new tangent to pursue. I suspect all this points to my ponder-er and wonder-er nature.
…but, what do you think?
