Sunday, October 28, 2007

Fall Cleaning


Bob and I spent today vacuuming and scrubbing and dusting. We took some of the rugs out to air them out. It always feels so good to clean the house. My mother cleaned a little every day, a someone said, "A floor and a chore." In retrospect it's amazing that my mother was a single mother who worked a full week, and still always had a clean house and a social life.) In fact, the people I know who keep impeccable houses I suspect of cleaning a little every day. Me, I tend to clean in a couple of days. But I've been on the road a lot. So today Bob and I pitched in. The windows are open and the house smells good.

What is it about cleaning? I've noticed that Miyazaki, the Japanese film maker, seems to have a thing for cleaning and putting things in order. In Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away, even My Neighbor Totoro, there are scenes of cleaning, cleansing, making things sparkle. It's a sign of goodness in his characters that they bring order. (In the gospel story of Mary and Martha, I suspect Miyazaki's sympathy would be with Martha, the sister who gets chided for waiting and cleaning and preparing instead of listening to Jesus. Mine certainly is.)

Anyway, I now have a false sense that life is somehow orderly. Tomorrow I am back at the airport to travel for work and I suspect that the airport, as always, will dash that illusion. But for now, life seems earned and safe.

5 Comments:

Blogger Steven Gould said...

As you're traveling anyway, and cleaning is a virtue, come over to my house. We could use a heaping basket of order out of chaos.

October 28, 2007 4:36 PM  
Blogger Maureen McHugh said...

Actually, cleaning someone else's house is way more fun than cleaning my own. There's no maintenance involved. But alas, I will just fly over your house on my way to smokey Southern California...

October 28, 2007 9:03 PM  
Blogger SquidgePa said...

If you end up near Del Mar, you can go to "Taste of Thai", east off of the five on Via de la Valle Rd.

Tom

October 29, 2007 2:32 PM  
Blogger Haddayr said...

Many cultures clean vigorously at changing of the seasons. The Irish, in particular, always scrubbed their houses and barns before All Soul's Day (and other days, as well. If everyone followed the ritual cleanings, it's amazing anyone got sick EVAR in that place.)

November 03, 2007 12:04 PM  
Blogger Christopher Barzak said...

I love cleaning and putting things in order, so it's no wonder I tend to think it's a great and wonderful thing when Miyazaki characters do the same thing. That's a great perception of his characters. I hadn't thought about it before, but maybe only because I'm so completely there with him in those instances. I think I used to like Mary Poppins for the same reason, now that I think about it. I clean a little every day, and have to do it before I can write, actually, otherwise nothing sits right for me. Kind of ridiculous. But whatever works!

And, yeah, I bet the airport dispels the illusion of order within five minutes. They always do that to me. Bleh, airports.

November 07, 2007 1:04 PM  

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