Alive and Cookin'
"Supposedly machines can do it better, and supposedly it's all labor saving. We give away our capacity to do things with our hands and with our bodies that actually give us health and vitality. To use our hands to knead the bread; to make things, to touch things, to smell things; we give it away, and then how're we gonna feel alive?" Edward Espe Brown, Zen priest in Fairfax, CA, as quoted from the film "How to Cook Your Life"
Since moving into my place, I have started doing my laundry by hand. Washing machines and dryers are miraculous devices, especially for households larger than one person or with children. Even if you're one person, having those machines to wash bedding and towels is nothing short of a necessity unless you have hands like Hercules and don't mind wringing out massive lengths of water laden fabric.
I don't mind washing my clothes by hand as long as I don't wait too long for the dirty clothes to pile up. In Arizona, when I lived in a similar shotgun apartment near downtown with no laundry machines, it was almost easier to wash my clothes in a bucket and hang them outside to dry in the Arizona heat than go in search of a crowded laundry mat and sit there for hours. I didn't have a dishwasher, heat, or air conditioning either.
Here in St. Louis, I have a clawfoot bathtub, which is an improvement to a small bucket, and I hang my laundry to dry over the cabinet doors and stove handle in the kitchen with the fan running overhead. Drying clothes in Missouri is more difficult in the winter unless you like icicles in your underwear. The first time I washed my clothes kneeling by the clawfoot bathtub, I was surprised at how dirty the water looked after first soak. I enjoyed watching the water get progressively clearer each time I rinsed and I liked swishing the wet clothes around in the hot water. My arm muscles and even my gluts and thigh muscles were sore the next day which made me realize doing laundry was a legitimate workout, and productive too!
It is necessary to use fabric softener when washing clothes by hand otherwise slower drying means stiff, scratchy clothes which is not ideal. Because my hands are exposed to the laundry soap and fabric softener (I need to get non-latex gloves eventually), I chose natural products free of harmful chemicals. It's better for the environment anyway, but I may not have made that distinction if I were buying soap for washing my clothes in a machine. Speaking of machines, I haven't had access to a dish washing machine in my home since early 2009. Sometimes I wish to have a dishwasher, but I also enjoy "playing" in the water with bubbly soap and seeing my dishes sparkle because of my own efforts. For now, I'm thankful for heat and air conditioning units. There are some machines I don't like to learn to live without.
Cooking is similar to washing clothes in that I am learning to enjoy the sensory process of taking the time and energy to produce meals, however rudimentary my progress. Instead of eating out, microwaving food, making sandwiches, or only grazing on raw food because I don't feel like cooking or don't know how to make interesting meals, I am learning that I like smelling the spices to choose for a dish. While touching meat continues to give me the willies, I like cutting up vegetables, hearing the diverse crunching noises of my knife on the ingredients, and having the smell of whatever I am cutting waft up to my nose. I especially enjoy the satisfaction that comes from creating something halfway decent to eat which can serve as leftovers for lunch the next day.
As Edward Brown mentions in the movie "How to Cook Your Life", the process of making bread is alive and sensory-filled. I've been a decent baker for a decade or so, but I didn't learn to make bread until my mid-twenties. Baking bread is definitely life-giving on many levels. At 28, I am still learning the basics of cooking and adding to my baking repertoire. Edward Brown's movie suggests that there is a greater sense of wholeness in approaching our food (or laundry, or washing dishes) with all senses and muscles firing, and being present and thoughtful in the process. In the end, I agree, because I have felt my body and mind enliven because I'm doing the physical work, engaging my sight, hearing, sense of smell and touch, and making the decisions to put my body in contact with products or foods that benefit me and even the environment in the long run.
Most days I don't miss a dishwasher, sometimes I don't miss a washer and dryer, and I'm learning to enjoy cooking for myself. At the same time, if I have the money in the future, I may end up buying a dishwasher, washer and dryer, and hiring a cook to create meals for me. One can't be too purist, after all.
Since moving into my place, I have started doing my laundry by hand. Washing machines and dryers are miraculous devices, especially for households larger than one person or with children. Even if you're one person, having those machines to wash bedding and towels is nothing short of a necessity unless you have hands like Hercules and don't mind wringing out massive lengths of water laden fabric.
I don't mind washing my clothes by hand as long as I don't wait too long for the dirty clothes to pile up. In Arizona, when I lived in a similar shotgun apartment near downtown with no laundry machines, it was almost easier to wash my clothes in a bucket and hang them outside to dry in the Arizona heat than go in search of a crowded laundry mat and sit there for hours. I didn't have a dishwasher, heat, or air conditioning either.
Here in St. Louis, I have a clawfoot bathtub, which is an improvement to a small bucket, and I hang my laundry to dry over the cabinet doors and stove handle in the kitchen with the fan running overhead. Drying clothes in Missouri is more difficult in the winter unless you like icicles in your underwear. The first time I washed my clothes kneeling by the clawfoot bathtub, I was surprised at how dirty the water looked after first soak. I enjoyed watching the water get progressively clearer each time I rinsed and I liked swishing the wet clothes around in the hot water. My arm muscles and even my gluts and thigh muscles were sore the next day which made me realize doing laundry was a legitimate workout, and productive too!
It is necessary to use fabric softener when washing clothes by hand otherwise slower drying means stiff, scratchy clothes which is not ideal. Because my hands are exposed to the laundry soap and fabric softener (I need to get non-latex gloves eventually), I chose natural products free of harmful chemicals. It's better for the environment anyway, but I may not have made that distinction if I were buying soap for washing my clothes in a machine. Speaking of machines, I haven't had access to a dish washing machine in my home since early 2009. Sometimes I wish to have a dishwasher, but I also enjoy "playing" in the water with bubbly soap and seeing my dishes sparkle because of my own efforts. For now, I'm thankful for heat and air conditioning units. There are some machines I don't like to learn to live without.
Cooking is similar to washing clothes in that I am learning to enjoy the sensory process of taking the time and energy to produce meals, however rudimentary my progress. Instead of eating out, microwaving food, making sandwiches, or only grazing on raw food because I don't feel like cooking or don't know how to make interesting meals, I am learning that I like smelling the spices to choose for a dish. While touching meat continues to give me the willies, I like cutting up vegetables, hearing the diverse crunching noises of my knife on the ingredients, and having the smell of whatever I am cutting waft up to my nose. I especially enjoy the satisfaction that comes from creating something halfway decent to eat which can serve as leftovers for lunch the next day.
As Edward Brown mentions in the movie "How to Cook Your Life", the process of making bread is alive and sensory-filled. I've been a decent baker for a decade or so, but I didn't learn to make bread until my mid-twenties. Baking bread is definitely life-giving on many levels. At 28, I am still learning the basics of cooking and adding to my baking repertoire. Edward Brown's movie suggests that there is a greater sense of wholeness in approaching our food (or laundry, or washing dishes) with all senses and muscles firing, and being present and thoughtful in the process. In the end, I agree, because I have felt my body and mind enliven because I'm doing the physical work, engaging my sight, hearing, sense of smell and touch, and making the decisions to put my body in contact with products or foods that benefit me and even the environment in the long run.
Most days I don't miss a dishwasher, sometimes I don't miss a washer and dryer, and I'm learning to enjoy cooking for myself. At the same time, if I have the money in the future, I may end up buying a dishwasher, washer and dryer, and hiring a cook to create meals for me. One can't be too purist, after all.
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