Article October 10, 1970 Issue

How's Your Attic?

MILTON SIMON

It is generally acknowledged that thought is externalized. One's thinking is expressed on one's body or in one's affairs. Look into a person's face, and you can often tell whether he is depressed or joyous, friendly or grouchy. Listen to someone talk on the telephone, and you can frequently determine whether he is tense and under pressure or poised and in command of his position.

The condition of a person's attic, storeroom, or closets can be a reliable gauge of his thinking. When a woman was describing a relative as possessing an inflexible, routine-oriented mentality, closed to everything progressive, clinging to old methods in the handling of her affairs, I was led to ask, "How's her attic?" "Full!" was the response. "You never saw such an array of junk. She won't throw out a single useless item." Wasn't this a vivid description of her relative's thought as well as of her attic?

It is most important for us to spiritualize our lives by clearing out our thinking. In belief, erroneous thoughts stay in our mental homes until discarded. Ignoring error does not remove it. Nor will going to a distant place do so. When will we get down to work and clean out our storeroom and closets, weed out the unnecessary accumulation of hoarded possessions and useless articles? When thought impels us to!

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