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ancient arts of doing things seem to be suitable material for evening classes and fashions,which people will -it seems- gladly do; they can take pride in it.
laundry is a chore-what if people went and learnt to do laundry in a self expressive and enjoyable way?
Extreme Ironing
http://www.extremeironing.com/
"combines the thrills of an extreme outdoor activity with the satisfaction of a well pressed shirt" [wiml, Jun 19 2001, last modified Oct 04 2004]
[link]
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But how? Doing laundry has intrinsically soul-deadening, degrading effects. What will make it an expressive form? If you can think of something that will make me *want* to do my laundry, hats off to you. |
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I already practice the ancient *Zen* art of laundry. I carefully hang/fold my clothes and meditate on the essence of cleanliness. |
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What's soul-deadening about doing laundry? Turn on washer, dump in soap. Go get clothes, dump in clothes. Watch TV/read half an hour. Dump wet clothes in washer. Watch TV/read an hour. Dump dry clothes in dresser. |
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Laundry...arrrggghhhh. My place...two sets of washers/dryers....average loads per week by all that live here = 18 total....average loads per week of horse stuff (blankets, leg wraps, towels, coolers, etc.) = 6 |
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Laundry is the curse that never goes away. I'm on my 5th load today and I still haven't folded/hung-up/put away loads 3 and 4 yet. Oh, wait, load 4 is still in the dryer..... |
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Mephista, I'm not ignoring you ;-) I just have too much laundry to get all philosophical about it! |
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OK. Everybody in the neighborhood or apartment building fill up one colorful basket with dirty clothes. Meet at the corner. Put baskets on head and walk single file to the nearest creek, singing "Monday, Monday", wriggling hips, clapping hands, etc. When the creek is reached, start pounding the clothes with "boffers", plastic bottles, bamboo sticks, etc., singing "Tutti-Frutti", with much emphasis on "Whop-bop-a-loopa, something something BAM!" When clothes are pounded enough, pair off and twist each item until most of the water is wrung back into the creek. Replace baskets on heads and single-file it back, singing "When the Saints go Marchin' In". When you reach the community clothes-line, hang the clothes in whatever pattern strikes your fancy. Should look something like Buddhist prayer flags. Oh! Or hang them on a big circular thing and keep them turning until they dry. |
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Mephista: Most of us like to make fun of the French (my HB name is a case in point), but that "life is art" thing is something they do quite well, and the thing that most endears them to me. The Italians also are pretty adept. Surrounded by American culture, I sometimes miss the mark on that philosophy, but it continues to appeal to me. |
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Looking up 'goffering' on Google led me to *two* collectors' sites devoted to antique irons. There should be a fruitful fertilization between the collectors, the gear freaks, the self-improvement philosophers, and the 'extreme ironing' athletes. |
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Re zen laundry, there was a show on the Learning Channel last night about monks who can dry wet sheets by meditation. Wet sheet, wrap monk, monk meditates, sheet begins steaming. |
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These same monks also slept outside in two feet of snow. With a camera crew <who almost froze> watching them, so they didn't slide off to nab a couple of electrically heated sleeping bags... |
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Make it a manly art. Write articles about how you can tell how good a man is between the sheets by how he washes, dries, and folds the sheets, etc. Convince enough women of this and they'll soon have men spending long afternoons in ritual displays of Laundering with a big el at the coin-op while the girlies sit and giggle at their creases and folds. |
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