It is 9 o'clock on a Sunday evening and I am tired. My back aches from performing unnatural (to me) acts: washing dishes, helping to prepare meals, folding laundry, vacuuming--endless vacuuming, watering plants--all the household chores that I am easing back into after years of sitting in front of a computer day and night, teaching students, and traveling from one job to another. I approached most of the chores with dread and some with the apprehension that I no longer knew how to do any of those things (I am out of the cooking habit totally). However, I found the experience to be pleasant and in some ways liberating. Doing actual physical work frees me up to think--to think unconditionally without feeling like I have to record my thinking somewhere in a blogpost, an email, an essay, notes for an essay, and so forth. Nope. I could just think and I could just let the thoughts come and go in my head at will. They didn't have to linger or attach themselves to anything. There was no deadline. I had all day to just let the thoughts run around in my head. That freedom felt good and I actually was able to think through a couple of worrisome things and find solutions. Now, what made this thinking different from the hard thinking of double-entry journals, responses to emails, drafting a paper? The freedom. There was no structure and no rules. I could think what I wanted to think and move to another thought any time I wanted to. So I'm wondering if this isn't like giving our students the freedom to write whatever they want and think it before they have to put it into some kind of structure. If they could start an essay (school work) by writing a poem about what they think and then moving the ideas in that poem to another genre and so on until they reach the form of the persuasive essay, would that not give them the time and the freedom to think what they think before they have to write what they think?
I'm looking forward to tomorrow evening when I will again apply my rusty domestic skills to some clothes sorting and have that beautiful time to think what I want to think.
I do this too: enjoy just thinking whatever I want by doing household work or working in the yard or just walking around the neighborhood. It lifts me and I find I need that time to "collect" my thoughts. I still don't cook (much), but I do fold laundry and clean things--everything--even the garage when I'm desperate. And now I'm throwing things away or giving them to Goodwill--downsizing and simplifying--making room for new thoughts, feelings, ideas.
ReplyDeleteWell your scones were divine. Chore well spent! I agree. I need time to inspire. I found my creativity this weekend letting someone else drive me around in the car. We need time!
ReplyDeleteI can truly identify with the chore part, but guess what????? I don't have any chores while I am in Charlotte so what do I try to do with my extra time? I do the natural I go shopping and spend money that I will hopefully earn in the near future. lol
ReplyDeleteI hope this message felt like a nah nah neh nah nah!
In reality, I worked on my demo and shared the African American story books with my play niece.
Love your writing, Sal! You make it look so easy -- your words just flow, flow over me and I LOVE reading what you write. I totally relate to what you said: this is what happens to me when I iron. It's mindless but also oddly comforting. I like seeing the result of my effort--rows of nicely pressed hanging shirts and pants and skirts. Driving works the same way for me . . . I don't really mind the 35 minutes because I do let my mind just wander and sometimes come up with something that is worth writing down. And those moments are gifts!!
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