Tonight at MONAC: What your home says about you

(Illustration/Humanities Washington)

Whenever my wife and I watch a crime-oriented television show, we like to check out the houses of the people involved.

As the cops roam around what is now a crime scene, sometimes you hear them make comments such as, “The scene looked as if a struggle had taken place.”

All the two of us can see, though, is the regular kind of a messy living atmosphere in which most of us live. Or maybe I should switch “most” for “many.”

Or just own it and say that’s how we live.

As it turns out, sociologist and writer Michelle Janning believes that “what you decide to keep – and not keep – in your home provides deep insights about you, your family, and society itself.”

Anyway, that will be the focus of the talk that Janning will be giving at 7 tonight at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture . Titled “What Your Home Says About the World,” the talk is sponsored by Humanities Washington and will be given in person – not virtually. So, given social distancing protocols, seating might be limited.

Janning, a professor at Whitman College, is the author of “The Stuff of Family Life: How Our Homes Reflect Our Lives.” She lives in Walla Walla.

According to the Humanities Washington website, Janning’s talk will feature “real stories that bring her research to life … highlights what we need to know about today’s changing family roles and relationships, how objects have their own cultural biographies, and the ways that group inequalities matter in the larger collection of our family stories.”

I wonder what my own messiness says about me. If I could only find my laptop, I’d Google for an answer.