I've been caught in the midst of a remodel environment.
Furniture these days, particularly of the office variety, is very modular. If the walls move on you, out pops the allen wrench sampler pack and furniture moves too. It's like being stuck inside a big game of tetris. I can almost hear the music. Its a shame that in real life you never get one of those big magic straight pieces dropping out of the sky that makes half your unwanted crap just poof disappear. 800 points.
You come to think of cubical walls as being as sturdy and solid as the floor and the ceiling. It's a disconcerting feeling to have them shrink on you. It reminds me of the innovative vomit scene in Toys, and you probably have no idea what I'm talking about because I recently discovered that I'm the only person on the planet that remembers that this movie even existed.
Our parents always told us that there were no life skills to be learned from video games. (Before you young ‘uns get on the defense, understand that I'm speaking of the parental figures of my generation, meaning that they were commenting on 8-bit games with punch lines like, "Thank you, but our princess is in another castle." The world has moved on, you know?)
The thing is, I think my Tetris skills have come in pretty damn handy. How to stack what you don't need, how to wait for what you do, and how to stay on top of the mess life sometimes drops on you... this is important stuff.
My kid, pining for a Millennium Falcon and a Death Star of his very own, has been looking around for stuff he can get rid of in that great 4-lines-cleared Tetris event of the home life (garage sale). I think he’d be ready to toss out everything from Princess Leia to his best footer pajamas right now if he could only rule the Galactic Empire.
Learning what stuff to save and take good care of for later is also part of the game. I mean, dude, that was Vader’s mistake, right?
This modular reshaping going on? It’s good stuff. I think it’s probably healthy to knock the walls around every now and again. It reminds you that they’re not set in stone.
(Unless they are.)