That really shouldn’t be there, you know. A place for everything and everything in its place—that’s what my mother used to say, and that’s how it is in our house. I mean, what were you thinking? Foot slipped? I’ll give you foot slipped, laddie. Look at the thing. It’s just wrong. Against natural order, against God’s Law. Gives me the heeby-jeebies. Sort it, before you get the back of my hand.
The anthropologist, Mary Douglas, defined pollution as matter out of place. Friday fictioneers is a weekly challenge set by Rochelle Wisoff Fields to write a 100-word story in response to a photo prompt. You can find other stories here
Neil MacDonald Author 
Now that’s going to take some massive sorting. He should just take the back of the hand. Very nice! 🙂
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Thanks so much, Terveen
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How well you capture the rigid mindset of the man! The disorder doesn’t merely upset him – it’s “Against natural order, against God’s Law.” Wonderful! Do you suppose he’s an elder in the wee Free?
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He’s just Henry from number 52
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Dear Neil,
If life were only as simple as a place for everything and everything in its place. Not in my world.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Nor in many others. But he does try hard to keep chaos at bay
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Once allowed space to flourish chaos just loves to expand. Unfortunately the back of the hand scenario is just another form of chaos
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He’s a sentry on the ramparts of civilisation
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This one might be hard to sort. Although the look worked for The Hard Rock Cafe. A place for everything.
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It requires constant and exhaustive effort
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I can vividly see this conversation taking place. Well done, Neil.
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Thanks so much, Mason
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This would be particularly difficult for a person with OCD to witness. I wonder if Mary had OCD?
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That’s quite possible
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This one had me both laughing and frustrated for the poor laddie. Unreasonable demand, to “sort it out.”
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You just can’t reason with some people
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“Against God’s law” for sure some magic must have been used to defy gravity.
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That’s a powerful point
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With your addendum it’s a great metaphor for the state the world is in. Nature’ll give us the back of her hand, whether we see it coming or not.
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Matter is always out of place by somebody’s classification system
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A lot of people forget that commandment. Commandment 5.5: Thou shalt not park the car IN the retaining wall. It’s right between “Thou shalt not kill.” and “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” He’s just asking for the wrath of God.
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I think I remember that one from Sunday School
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There is out of place and OUT of place… even the less rigid would find this disorderly…
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Unless it’s in an art gallery
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Right!
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I can relate. I love “The back of my hand” as a general expression. I always hear it in an Irish accent.
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Thanks so much, Joshua
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I try to follow that- the quote in your first line.
Tough, but try to 🙂
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Everyone needs a bit of disorder, I think
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it looks like he’s in big trouble now. i wish him luck. 🙂
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He’s going to need it
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Wouldn’t like to live in that house! No mercy!
And you convey that so well, Neil.
Frightening.
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Thanks so much, Jenne
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Nicely done. That’s some huge sorting.
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Thanks so much
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For someone who dislikes chaos I imagine a car smashed through a wall is pretty annoying.
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Yup. Cars should be parked in the garage
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A very realistic voice!
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Thanks so much, Lizy
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Haha indeed it shouldn’t be there. Of course we only know this because we know where it should be. Well done!
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And, of course, it should only not be there if it’s not a work of art
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Old standards are alien to the young today, hence the poor attitudes.
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The youth of today (said with a click of the tongue)
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Love that last line. Good one! 🙂
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Thanks so much
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Ah that old foot slipped excuse… that made me laugh! I knew someone who drove into a tree whilst experimenting with swapping pedals and feet around.
As to your character, it’s taken me almost a lifetime to realise (having been brought up to be very proper!) that some of the most orderly things we are encouraged to do in the world are neither morally superior or the least bit necessary.
And as an aside isn’t pollution something that probably shouldn’t have existed in the first place?
As you can see you got me thinking.
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I didn’t mean pollution in an ecological sense but in a social one. Like taboos such as “where the cattle are, the women are not”
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Neil,
If he can sort it, we’ll put him in charge of world environmental policy!
~🕊Dora
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Sadly, I don’t think he’s going to sort ir
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I think it’s going to take more than the back of his hand to sort this. Next time crash well away from tyrants.
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Sadly, there are tyrants in every block
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Great story, I enjoyed imagining how you’d ‘tidy up’ a car crashed into a wall, as if it were s scatter cushion. Don’t think it would all fit into the dustbin.
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Perhaps if the dustbin was the precise and appropriate shape
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I think you’re right. That railing was definitely not supposed to be there. 😉 Fun story.
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Thanks so much, Anne
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