With three kids and a home business, and her disabled mother living with her, Kristen Becker often lets the dishes and laundry pile up. ’I am very comfortable with chaos,’ she says.
克里斯汀•贝克(Kristen Becker)有三个孩子，一份在家里做的生意，还有一位身患残疾的母亲和自己住在一起，在这样的情况下，她常常会任由脏盘子和脏衣服堆积如山。她说，我一点儿也不在乎又脏又乱。
Her husband isn’t.
可她的丈夫在乎。
He organizes his clothing by type, color and pattern, alphabetizes his CD collection and keeps rubber gloves in his car for unexpected spills, she says.
贝克太太说，她的丈夫会按种类、颜色和款式摆放衣服，把CD按字母顺序排好，在车里准备一双橡胶手套，以防意外喷溅事件发生。
He sometimes goads his wife into being neater by making only his half of their king-size bed, heaping the magazines and bills splayed across the kitchen counter into teetering stacks, or moving his wife’s mound of laundry across the room.
他有时会迫使妻子变得更整洁一些，比如他会只整理双人床上自己的那一边，把厨房桌子上散落的杂志和帐单堆成摇摇欲坠的一摞，或是把妻子小山式的脏衣服在房间里搬来搬去。
Ms. Becker retaliates by letting her messes pile up even higher. But one day she couldn’t take it anymore. Sick of her husband’s incessant straightening and scrubbing, she decided to dismantle his neatly ordered life.
而贝克太太则以把东西堆得更加壮观进行回击。不过有一天，她再也忍不住了。厌倦了丈夫不断的整理和擦拭，她决定颠覆丈夫井然有序的生活。
While he was at work, Ms. Becker rearranged his closet -- randomly moving shirts, pants and sports jackets together, and pairing slippers with boots and sandals with loafers. She moved his toiletries around in the bathroom and took papers out of his file folders and put them back in the wrong sleeves.
趁着丈夫上班的时候，贝克太太重新“整理”了丈夫的衣柜──把衬衫、裤子和运动外套乱七八糟地扔在一起，把拖鞋和靴子配成双，把凉鞋和休闲皮鞋配成对。她把卫生间里丈夫的洗漱用品来了个大搬家，把件夹里的纸张拿出来，然后放到另外一个套子里。
’It was delicious,’ says Ms. Becker, 39 years old, who runs an online gift shop from her home in Crofton, Md. ’I was getting him back for all those times I felt pressured to keep things clean and organized.’ (Her husband immediately moved everything back. He declined to be interviewed for this column.)
贝克太太今年39岁，家住马里兰州克罗夫顿，在家经营着一个网上礼品店。她说，太棒了，我是在报复他一直以来强迫我保持东西干净整齐。(她的丈夫马上又把一切恢复了原位。他拒绝就本文接受采访。)
In the battle between messy and tidy, which side should win? Should slobs learn to be neater? Or should neat freaks loosen up?
在脏乱与整洁之间的大战中，哪一方该获胜呢?拉遢鬼是否应该学习变得更整洁?还是洁癖鬼该放松一下?
Neatniks will tell you that order is the way of the world -- everything has a place and every place should be labeled. Often, they feel they bear a burden for having to clean up after their partner. Even worse: They think they hold the moral high ground.
有洁癖的人会告诉你秩序是世界运转之道──每个东西都有一个位置，每个位置都要有标签。他们常常感觉有责任为自己的伴侣收拾残局。更糟糕的是，他们认为自己在道德上占有优势。
But messy people suffer, too. They feel guilty for not being neat. They resent being controlled by someone more rigid and demanding. And they hate having to clean when they don’t want to -- or endure the hints or griping if they refuse. (Note to my husband: I don’t think I can live without you, but make just half the bed and I’ll try.)
不过拉遢的人也不好过。他们为没有保持整洁而感到愧疚。对被更刻板、更苛刻的人所控制感到愤愤不平。讨厌不想打扫的时候却必须去打扫，忍受拒绝打扫后对方的暗示和唠叨。(给我丈夫的提示：我认为没有你，我就活不下去，不过你整理自己那一半床，我会试着离开你也能生活下去。)
’I have a chronic case of Reorganization Stress Syndrome. It’s when an item that used to be in Location A suddenly appears in Location B, with no warning,’ says Dave Brooke, 39, a supply-chain analyst in Santa Rosa, Calif. As a messy person living with a neat one, he has it worse than most: His girlfriend is a professional organizer. ’Having the place look beautiful and neat is a wonderful thing -- until I need to find something,’ he says.
加州圣罗萨的39岁供应链分析师戴夫•布鲁克(Dave Brooke)说，我患有慢性再整理压力综合症。当一件原本在A处的物品出现在B处的时候，就会毫无预警的发病。作为与一个爱干净的人生活在一起的拉遢鬼，他的处境比大部分人都要糟糕：他的女友是个职业整理者。他说，让地方看起来漂亮整洁是件美妙的事，不过我找不到东西了。
Having to search for your stuff is one thing. But having a fight with your partner over a sock on the floor is something else entirely. ’People build up resentment, and then they snap,’ says Carolyn Kelley North, a marriage counselor in Lighthouse Point, Fla. ’The sock becomes a symbol of the relationship as a whole.’
不得不到处找自己的东西是一个问题。不过因为一只扔在地板上的袜子而和伴侣大吵一番却完全是另外一回事了。佛罗里达州灯塔市的婚姻顾问卡罗林•诺斯(Carolyn Kelley North)说，人们会慢慢积怨，然后会突然爆发。袜子成了整个关系的一个象征。
Yes, you heard her right: If you’re not careful, the essence of the most important relationship in your life will be distilled to one dirty sock.
不错，你理解的没错：如果你不小心的话，你生活中最重要的关系的精髓就只剩下一只脏袜子。
