Poem in Prose
I like to take my pleasure with my work. Efficiency is for factories; it makes a poor philosophy of life. I am not so interested in efficiently completing a task as I am in enjoying what has to be done and investing it with real meaning and interest. “There is often less fatigue when there is no sharp cleavage between work and life,” Josephine Benton advised in her book for housewives, The Pace of a Hen. (I can call myself a housewife in the original sense of huswif, house-woman.) I relax by accepting my task and not by grasping for the free time that might come afterwards if I hurry.
Wherever she is it is now. There is serenity in this direct experience. “The most important thing in life is living now,” wrote a mother of four. “Hands in the dishwater; thank you, Lord, for the dishes, for the warmth, for the helper beside me blowing bubbles into a peanut butter jar!” Give us this day our daily bread.
This intense appreciation for the present—born of gratitude towards God and a far-sighted vision that discovers eternal meaning and purpose in ordinary things—leads to the discovery of new beauties.
I admire the grain of the wood and enjoy the smooth slide of the cloth when I dust and oil the furniture. It is not efficient, but it is beautiful.
I arrange fresh produce like a Cézanne before I begin my chopping. It is not efficient, but it is beautiful.
I reign myself in again and again to allow Littlest Brother to enjoy, discuss, question, and self-correct his school-work. It is not efficient, but it is beautiful.
When inspired by gratitude, love and joy, the housewife becomes a poet—usually the kind of poet O. Henry described as too busy living his poetry to write it. Poetry is not an efficient language; it clothes its meaning in beauty and subtlety and so succeeds in saying more than it could directly.
Blessed with a sense of immediacy, a sensitivity for the common beauties, a love and joy that breathes life into duty, the housewife will find hers one of the most noble and creative tasks, that of caring for people in a beautiful way.
Poem in Prose
This poem is for my wife
I have made it plainly and honestly
The mark is on it
Like the burl on a knife
I have not made it for praise
She had no more need for praise
Than the summer has
Or the bright days
In all that becomes a woman
Her words and her ways are beautiful
Love’s lovely duty
The well-swept room
Wherever she is there is sun
And time and a sweet air
Peace is there
Work done
There are always curtains and flowers
And candles and baked bread
And a cloth spread
And a clean house
Her voice when she sings is a voice
At dawn by a freshening sea
Where the wave leaps in the
Wind and rejoices
Wherever she is it is now
It is here where the apples are
Here in the stars
In the quick hour
The greatest and richest good—
My own life to live in—
This she has given me
If giver could
Archibald MacLeish. “Poem in Prose,”
Actfive and Other Poems, p. 48-9
For another poem and reflections about the pleasure to be found in home-sweet things, read my post A Song for Common Things.
This post is illustrated with two of the famous still life paintings in which Paul Cézanne made the ordinary beautiful. I likewise enjoy the paintings of Johannes Vermeer for their serene and artistic portrayal of home tasks.
COMMENT ON THIS POST BY SENDING AN EMAIL TO THE HANDMAIDEN.
BIG DADDY said...
Being that I am currently supporting my family though my work as an “efficiency expert,” I feel the need to make a statement; There is beauty in efficiency.
Consider the example of our kitchen utensil drawer. It is known as the invisible drawer because if opening the drawer the first time foes not yield the desired spoon or opener, the drawer can be close and opened again, and the object of our desire suddenly appears. Imagine, if you will, a drawer that has “a place for everything and everything in its place.” (This is a common phrase in the “Lean” community.) You can then open the drawer and immediately see the implement or immediately see that it is missing, More time to enjoy the Cézanne and less time, usually in frustration, finding the proper knife with which to cut it. Besides, there are few things more beautiful than a well-organized drawer, everything lined up and oriented correctly. (This explains the deep sighs you hear when I enter my garage.)
To clarify my point, the efficiency I am referring to is not in the actual production of the product, but in organization of the tools required for the production, whether it be aircraft seats or my favorite chocolate mousse.
The purpose of efficiency in the case of a “house-woman” should be to minimize the non-value added activity (finding the furniture oil) and to maximize the value-added activities (admiring the grain of the wood). However, I must point out at this time, that one house-woman’s value-added activity may also be perceived by someone else as waste of time (conflicting perceptions of what is “value-added”). These values need to be effectively communicated by all involved parties s sometimes circumstances to not allow for the time to do things the “beautiful” way, and a more “efficient” way may be required.
God has given us the opportunity and ability to enjoy his creation. We too often fail to see beautiful things around us because we have focused too much on the process. We have lost the ability to appreciate the joy of being creative or even simply doing the work and the wonderful opportunities that can come from these activities (bubbles in the peanut butter jar). More people should stop for a moment to simply look around and enjoy where God has them at that moment.
Monday, February 28, 2011 02:34 PM
HANDMAIDEN said...
I anticipated your comment. ;-) I apologize for the delay in the promised response.
I think we both agree that efficiency as a means or characteristic has definite beauty (visual and philosophical), but as an end, as a pursuit that puts accomplishment before relationship (to things, people God), efficiency becomes ugly.
When I said “efficiency is for factories,” I was regarding efficiency as the industrial attitude that fails to view tasks as anything but physical events or motions that can be reduced and ordered exactly in order to maximize physical productivity and profit. God created man as a whole being—body, soul, and spirit—and this materialistic view of work and productivity is degrading.
Friday, March 4, 2011 03:21 PM
Friday, February 18, 2011