Auden attempted to dump on the do-gooders because it bore wine stains and cigarette burns — telltale signs of the poet’s untidy ways. Mark Twain was adamant about being photographed with a cluttered desk while Joseph Mitchell, that gifted chronicler of the Big Apple’s bylanes, was a notorious hoarder of trash. Another theory depicts these slipshod souls as heroic figures, attempting to fortify themselves against an uncaring world within — yes, you guessed it right — the sanctuary of an untidy room. Of course, parents who cannot get their offspring to clean their rooms even today can always turn to Gandhi for solace. On being asked about his messy desk, Einstein is believed to have remarked, “If a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind, what are we to think of an empty desk?”

Source: The Telegraph May 09, 2019 18:33 UTC