JAM AND SHAKESPEARE {Tudor}
I enjoy doing housework, ironing, washing, cooking, dishwashing. Whenever I get one of those questionnaires and they ask what is your profession, I always put down housewife. It’s an admirable profession, why apologize for it. You aren’t stupid because you’re a housewife. When you’re stirring jam you can read Shakespeare.
—Tasha Tudor, The Private World of Tasha Tudor
I was actually stirring a bubbling pot of strawberry jam when I first read The Merchant of Venice.—I was listening to Hayd’s Creation when I washed the refrigerator.—I was discussing a Christopher Perrin lecture with my brother while I scrubbed the oven and he repainted the wood trim.—In all occupations there will be tedious tasks; but rather than being mindless, they free us to be mindful.
In two of my favorite posts from The Thinking Housewife, Laura Wood asks the questions ‘Is Domesticity Dull?’ and ‘Should Smart Women Sweep?’
• Tasha Tudor •
October 8, 2013