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Category: Musing
Tags: Things Work

Idle Thoughts on Housework: Cooking, Cleaning and Generally Appreciating Oneself

These are old feelings, they've only recently re-surfaced so I'll take care to write them down.

There are a handful of important things which I never came to understand until I'd come of age. The most important of these things regards myself; this is not about that most important thing because I have dedicated much breath and thought to that thing already; instead this is about housework: cooking, cleaning, and generally appreciating yourself.

In between the wealth of menial tasks which fill our day, that time between school and bed or work and pleasure for those of us who operate in an environment of scheduled behavior and expected action the ride home can be a liberating feeling: to have the chance to put something behind oneself and move forward permits me at least a sigh of relief when I head home-ward at the end of my day.

And when I get home I'm not thinking about going to class the next day; the most I can afford for my own comfort is a little bit of homework and a little bit of studying. I'm not one of the people who would rather have home in one space and work in the other. I certainly take my schooling home with me: I think about the things I've learned and work through some of the tougher concepts in my mental as I'm going around the house. The things I think about: I find that these problems are largely solved on three different planes:

  1. Conscious
  2. Sub-conscious
  3. Completely unaware

Conscious realizations occur when I am actively working on material which is relevant to the problem at-hand. For example I may come to grasp some mathematical fact while working through a proof. This is conscious in all senses of the word.

Sub-conscious realizations come to me when I am not directly engaged with the problem but I am still activating the slice of my mental which deals with problem-solving. Like if something about human psychology clicks when I'm thinking about fluid dynamics. It's very similar to conscious realization but only the direct intent is absent.

Completely unaware realizations occur when you least expect them. Like when I'm looking out my window and suddenly realize that what makes Rei better than Asuka is her dynamicity or like when I am washing my delicate clothes and it suddenly dawns on me that only a few of us understand our own desires or that the consequence of our split-second decisions linger far longer than their due few seconds. These moments of understanding may seem shallow but also hold a world of understanding to the curious soul of whom these revelations most often strike. The "wandering mind which is more awake when it is asleep," a short break from work helps even the shallow-minded of us work through some of the more difficult problems we're tasked with.

And one of these unaware realizations I've had within the past year: I find immense pleasure in the day-to-day upkeep of my house. The cooking, cleaning, serving, washing and drying which is so often demanded and still yet strikes fear into the hearts of men and women that they would sooner order take-away than to cook-in brings me contrarily great pleasure which I've only come to realize since I've taken to turning my house into a home.

In more-or-less banishing the time-sucking things (things like scrolling around the Internet, absorbing information without making a point of any of it or generally lolling around, which has been top-of-mind recently) I've bloomed into devoting my time and energy not spent on school or self-study on cooking, cleaning, generally organizing and decorating things around the house.

If I am able to turn some music on, throw open the windows and breathe deep of the rolling wind and quietly hang pots and pans to dry I am affected by such a spiritually stirring wave of relaxation that I feel as if I could melt into the floor. Doing the washing also gives me such a feeling that I am at risk of falling into the dryer with such a warm feeling in my heart and a quiet smile on my face, never to be recovered until it's time for bed.

Having been so affected for more than a year gives me the confidence to say: all these things fulfill me: they make me roundly appreciate myself more. And when some interviewer asks: "Would you call yourself a 'motivated individual'?" or "Do you enjoy projects with difficult challenges?" I can answer without any trace of double-think in the affirmative because I truly feel that I am staying true to the person I still look up to and the truest still to the person I've grown up to be by exercising my own arms and my own legs to make myself the best I can be: that is one step beyond self-reliance and still bounds beyond how many people waste their time.

And with more than one person house-doing with me: nothing could be sweeter than to fold this task into half the space: to leave me with something else to absorb my thought and prick my thumb like a rose and flush my face to the same shade of crimson would be a welcome relief. To split the work in half and quadruple the amount of pleasure in the same motion: that's a facet of my daily which there is an embarrassing lack of.

All things in due time: comme c'est beau !

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