Enlightenment: full steam ahead!
I had a spiritual epiphany the other day while I was ironing napkins. No, I'm not going to tell you what it was - you have to be careful sharing things like that; it might turn out an anticlimax. Just wanted to note that it reminded me again of how useful repetitive household tasks can be for contemplation, and how easy it is to forget that in our automated days. In her lovely new Treasury, Lynne Truss - author of the grammatical laugh riot Eats, Shoots and Leaves - describes the British Polite Society, who believe greater reliance on machines is responsible for ills from rudeness to marital breakdown. (Apparently she-washes-he-dries was an invaluable opportunity for couples conversation, blown to smithereens by the dishwasher's advent.) While I appreciate what the PS is truing to do, I think they're a bit off the mark. Household chores in the presence of another tend to highlight how much more fun you could be having if you didn't have chores to get done, or, alternately, what a mess your partner makes of the simplest tasks. (Not that any of you would ever react that way to a discrepancy in household practices, I'm sure.) Anyway, I think that a repetitice task that keeps you in one place for any length of time can be a great opportunity to fix your mind on the eternal: your thoughts aren't too busy, because your actions are automatic, and you're not tempted to go distract yourself, because you know you have to stand there until that ironing's finished. Mowing the lawn, I think, is even better: it's like the practice of walking the labyrinth. The entire path is in view: you go back and forth over familiar terrain, each time looking at it from a slightly different perspective. It's a wonderful metaphor for, and a concrete path to, thinking through problems or questions that follow you.
For another story of a good Catholic girl ironing napkins for spiritual practice - with rather a more dramatic outcome than my own, at least so far - check out Household Saints, by Francine Prose. Not too taxing, but funny and thought-provoking: the best summer reading that could be hoped for. Thank you all so much for holding during the silence as I relocated and took care of some other things. Now that I'm back, I plan to be back with a vengeance - or should that be back with the other cheek turned?
posted by Theologienne @ 11:49 PM
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I came upon the following complementary passage of Merton the same day I read this post:
"The requirements of a work to be done can be understood as the will of God. If I am supposed to hoe a garden or make a table, then I will be obeying God if I am true to the task I am performing. To do the work carefully and well, with love and respect for the nature of my task and with due attention to its purpose, is to unite myself to God's will in my work. In this way I become His instrument. He works through me. When I act as His instrument my labor cannot become an obstacle to contemplation, even though it may temporarily so occupy my mind that I cannot engage in it while I am actually doing my job. Yet my work itself will purify and pacify my mind and dispose me for contemplation."
There's something I find very appealing about this sort of Benedictine ideal of ora et labora. I wonder if our Western focus on religion as a purely private practice has led us to a mindset that is too compartmentalized. If so, it seems a dangerous trend--one does not say grace in public, and soon one forgets to say grace in private; one avoids reliance on religious convictions in the workplace, and soon one no longer considers the moral implications of one's work. It seems clear that if we accept the incarnation of Christ as the man, Jesus, we must accept that all aspects of our lives are amenable to sanctity. (c.f. Parker's Back...) There's a beautiful metaphor floating around in my head of the mosque and the marketplace sharing a wall, but I can't quite place where I heard it.
Ironing napkins? Dinner at Chez Theologienne sounds like quite the occasion!
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