clutter noun

Definition of clutter (Entry 2 of 2)

1a: a crowded or confused mass or collection-a clutter of motels and restaurants

b: things that clutter a place-tried to minimize the unnecessary clutter in her house

2: interfering radar echoes caused by reflection from objects (as on the ground) other than the target

There is no way around it. Life in the contrast between irrelevance and relevance is cluttered. It can be a debris field of our or other’s disasters or it can be eclectic heaps of weirdly enduring and intriguing artifacts that show life has been lived there. At times, the clutter can distort or even confuse the inner “radar” that helps us navigate the contrast.

The call stunned me. I did not even know what ALS meant. How can someone so young be defined by three simple letters? He was hopeful, but with statistics like 1%, I struggled to see the hope. Over the next 2 years, we spoke regularly as the hope diminished-a failed experimental treatment, loss of mobility, the blurring of speech, the loss of dignity, the fear of death, and the desire to end things for his family’s sake. Then finally Hospice. I sat next to him the last week of his life and cried when his wife called me-another hole in my already riddled life.

We live and walk in the clutter of life. It is easy to lose our way in it. Every piece is an obstacle or opportunity to find our way to relevance in an often seemingly irrelevant world.

Many have tried to teach me how to live a relevant life with varying degrees (or lack) of success. But only a few have taught me how to die a relevant death. I appreciate both because they are the waypoints when I get lost in the clutter. Like a bright star that reveals the true North, they point the way in the darkness.

None of us get to choose the clutter that litters our contrast. But we get to choose the weirdly enduring and intriguing artifacts that we keep close by and treasure in our journey to relevance.