Epiphany # 402 Any job worth doing is not necessarily worth doing well. Exhibit A: housekeeping is our generation's answer to the Myth of Sysiphus. You roll the rock up the hill, and just before you get it there, you're bowled over by the new onslaught of crap that comes in the back door: shoes, socks, backpacks, the contents of favor bags and more junk mail than you can shake a broomstick at. Despite the futility of cleaning, there is an inner German that wants to have gone through the ritual purification at least once a week.
My newest realization is that if you just pass the vaccuum extremely quickly and somewhat symbolically over the kitchen floor (almost the way the priests in mass swing the Myrrh container back and forth at the congregants as they sway up the aisle) you can still tell yourself you cleaned the floors. Besides, as soon as you unpack the groceries or open the door for the dog, the floor will be re-gritted with tiny mud clumps or onion skins. So what the hay? Do a really half-baked job in the first place. Better to have tried and sucked very badly than never to have sucked at all.
Your housekeeping epiphany is hysterical! I like the religious undertones in it. Maybe that means cleaning house also gets me off the hook for church! As always, anything coming out of your head is funny and insightful.
Carolyn S.
Posted by: Carolyn | June 16, 2005 at 10:13 AM