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November 01, 2004
What Needs To Be Done
While cruising around the discussion forum on Mothering.com I came across an interesting thread about housekeeping and spirituality, which contained a still more interesting post about a book I've never read called The Continuum Concept. The author of the post writes:
the Indians in the book don't have a word for work. They just do what needs to be done. If they have a tedious and boring job, they'll do something to make it interesting, or they'll enlist help from others, and they'll laugh and joke while they work. Or they'll sing a working song. I've found that thinking differently about my chores really helps. It's not "housework", it's just what needs to be done. It's all real life. There's a commercial on for a vacuum cleaner, and the voice over says something about how their vacuum is easier to use so you can get to your real life, as the mom walks out to a beach to be with her family. Well, we all know real life isn't a beach. That's vacation. Real life is housework, and making dinner, and playing with the kids, and game night, and Christmas, and summer vacation,and laundry, and being sick, and all of it, integrated together. So thinking of it as just what needs to be done helps me not resent it.
I don't want to fall into the trap of romanticizing a culture I know nothing about, but regardless of how anthropologically true the source might be, this poster seems very sage to me. It's a great approach to getting things done--much better than my usual method [via caterina]--and I plan on trying it just as soon as I finish posting. . . .
Posted by Miki at November 1, 2004 12:18 PM