From: jeff davis (jrd1415@yahoo.com)
Date: Sun May 19 2002 - 16:01:56 MDT
Someone less odd among the six billion odd people
currently inhabiting the planet wrote:
> Kids, in order to grow into reasonable citizens,
need to learn that it is to be expected that they help
out where they can. There is nothing nefarious or
arbitrary in this. It is basic housebreaking. I just
wish more people I know now as supposed adults
actually caught on to the idea when young. You would
think a lot of people grew up with maids and other
hired help. They certainly pretend things just get
done that they would rather not deal with.
Quite so. Social responsibility, consideration for
others, picking up after oneself, etc--each of these
is a good thing. But one must keep one's priorities
in order.
As Shakespeare says (in Hamlet, Act 4, scene 4)
...What is a man,
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more.
He might well have added 'clean house' to the above
list. And in fact, he almost does when, in the Famous
"To be or not to be" speech (Act 3 scene 1) he
suggests that suicide is a viable option to similar
household maintenance duties, specifically the
collection of fardels(large bundles of firewood):
...who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
...
makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
A somewhat more current commentary relating to the
ancient tension between the Puritan and the Dionysian
is to be found in John Steinbeck's "About Ed
Ricketts", a preface to Log From the Sea of Cortez.
Here, Ed, sans mother slash housekeeper, instructs the
younger members of his household regarding "the
rules":
"We must remember three things. Number one and first
in importance, we must have as much fun as we can with
what we have. Number two, we must eat as well as we
can, because if we don't, we won't have the health and
strength to have as much fun as we might. Number
three, and third and last in importance, we must keep
the house reasonably in order, wash the dishes and
such things. But we will not let the last interfere
with the other two."
In short, housekeeping has its place, but we must be
ever vigilant. There are those who would turn the
most pedestrian affairs of everyday life into an
excuse for oppressive authoritarianism.
Though Aunt Samantha may get her panties in a twist,
be assured, you will not burn in hell just because you
didn't make your bed.
Joyfully contributing to the delinquency of minors
everywhere,
Best, Jeff Davis
"You are what you think."
Jeff Davis
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