Today, Robin—the angel of feather dusters, the goddess of order and a mopped tile floor—came to clean. I look forward to her visits. Well, I look forward to after her visits when I sit in the living room and look around me at the what she hath wrought, afraid to make a move, disturb a remote control, lift a finger that might invite chaos or cause some temporarily shooed-away dust to stir.
So far, it’s been a great day.
While Robin cleaned, I ran errands. None of them were necessary; some were even frivolous. While Robin cleaned, I spent more money than I would earn today because I am one of America’s chronically unemployed. While Robin cleaned, I bought Mexican terracotta wall pots for the veronica and lobelia; traded old jugs of Tide for the new, improved fragrance-free high-efficiency washer variety. I bought a deep purple wave petunia at the nursery over on Route 20/34, the color so deep, the velvet of each blossom so silken, all I could do was think of Georgia O’Keeffe. While Robin cleaned, I used the automated postal center at the downtown post office and sent an air mail letter to Thailand; two tubes of Mount St. Helens commemorative posters to nephews; a package with books about writing and a gift card for Borders bookstore to the college-graduating niece of my dead (best) friend. While Robin cleaned, I listened to Randi Rhodes on Air America: We are our own worst enemy!
I think it’s a measure of progress for the new, improved me that I can allow Robin to clean—and my husband to pay for her six hours of cleaning—and not feel one ounce of regret or guilt even though I am fully capable of getting out my fancy Miele vacuum cleaner and doing what Robin did myself. Real progress for me as a human being has been learning to value my time, even if I’m not getting paid by the hour. To know that a creative life is nurtured by time and days of doing what might seem like nothing. This is where I agree with Julia Cameron and her Artist’s Way: Do nothing time is necessary for art.
Time to go downstairs and enjoy the newly-polished stainless steel kitchen sink.
The public domain photograph above by an unknown photographer is called “Japanese Man Posing with Baskets, Brooms, and Feather Dusters” and is from the 1870s.
Interests: Reading, writing, not arithmetic. The art and craft of poetry. Photography. Vegetable and flower gardening especially heirloom bulbs and dahlias. Movies in real theatres. Theatre on real stages. Art in real galleries. Crossword puzzles and, of course, Wordle. Singer-songwriters like Aimee Mann and Patti Griffin. All kinds of music especially 1930s jazz. Venice, Italy! The Dude abides.
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