Chel Owens

“I think I can understand that feeling about a housewife’s work being like that of Sisyphus (who was the stone rolling gentleman). But it is surely in reality the most important work in the world. What do ships, railways, miners, cars, governments, etc. exist for except for that people may be fed, warmed, and safe in their own homes? As Dr. Johnson said, ‘To be happy at home is the end of all human endeavor.’ … We wage war in order to have peace, we work in order to have leisure, we produce food in order to eat it. So your job is the one for which all others exist.”

–C.S. Lewis, from a letter he wrote in 1955 (Thanks, Mere Inkling)

22 thoughts on “”

  3. Lovely sentiments, C.S. Something my daughter can take cold comfort in as she stands ‘neath the chill grey sky at the washing line refilling it with recleaned booties, nappies, tops and bottoms, methinks.

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  4. Do you think it is time, perhaps, to replace the term ‘housewife’ with something more like ‘the person who performs all the shitty household duties that everyone else around here seems to think get done by magic’.

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  5. I thought the same about small jobs for a long while…then along came Douglas Adams and his occupants of the Golgafrincham Ark Fleet Ship B. 😁

    Telephone sanitiser was one of the best. This was actually a real job for a period here. I remember being startled at my desk by a woman with a squirter and duster, assaulting my telephone apparatus with gusto, then moving on to my colleagues with equal urgency. We had no prior warning of this! I imagine more people with weaker dispositions died from the surprise than from any germs that might be residing in the mouthpiece.

    Is it Mother’s Day there? Happy Mother’s Day. We had ours earlier in the year, don’t know why.

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    1. I never knew that telephone sanitiser was a real occupation! I assumed Adams made it up as an example of a useless job! 😀

      I can’t tell you how many times I think of the parallels between his books and real life.

      Yes, we had Mother’s Day on Sunday. Ours is in May; it looks like the UK version is March sometime. Honestly, it’s an odd holiday like Valentine’s Day where it’s gotten commercial … the real, lasting way to celebrate seems to be taking one’s mother out for dinner.

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  7. Even as an acronym it’s still a bit of a mouthful, I’ll admit. How about these two?

    Sexist
    Limitations
    Allowing
    Virtual
    Employment

    Or

    Outdated
    Lifestyle
    Decisions

    Requiring
    Underpaid
    Ladies
    Evolutionary
    Subjugation

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