Sequentiality; everything must be parallel or sequent, or I will spontaneously combust.
The pleasure of lining up and straightening items on your desk; the harmony of a tin full of carefully arranged pencils or the joy of a drawer full of straight cutlery; the serenity induced by a scene of parallel railway lines or the contentment generated by the geometric regularities of buildings.
The delight in rearranging the legs of your sleeping cat from a haphazard pile to an orderly display (not easy, but very satisfying); the joy of methodically stacked shelves in a supermarket and the satisfaction when the coffee table finally lines up equidistantly and parallel with all the other furniture and the walls.
Hmm, just noticed these paragraphs are all agreeably and neatly ranged left (left justified, ragged right or lined up down the left hand edge). Wonderful.
Then there is the excitement of an orderly or consecutive sequence of numbers on a score board; although it’s a little annoying when you come across a good number sequence and it gets altered.
For example, you might be watching tennis, perhaps the French Open, and the display develops a good sequence of numbers, eg 1,2,4/1,2,4 then someone wins and completely ruins it!
Still, you can always find a good, regular, chronological public transport timetable, or the consecutive numbers on a bus or theatre ticket, or when the total on a restaurant bill or check is a logical progression, and… the thrill when the digital clock reads ’22:22’ or especially ’12:34’, and if you’re extremely fortunate ’12:34:56’!
Oh yes, and one of my favourite Tweets ever by @Hipchickadee on Sep 6th, 2009: ‘I have C.D.O. It’s like O.C.D. but all the letters are in alphabetical order as they should be’.
:^)
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