The Meaning of Housework
All my adult life I’ve struggled to find meaning in housework – the endless laundry, the mystery of lost socks, the dust you scoop up and is there again tomorrow, and the children’s messes. Why? Why? Why? I’ve often described it as getting up in the morning and all the work you did yesterday is torn up on your desk. Chaos! Entropy! Why? What a waste of time!
I have finally found it’s meaning…by studying about Primal Religions.
Most of the tribal people who practice these religions face an endless round of toil for their daily subsistence. They don’t have the means to escape, like vacations, TV, internet, movies, etc., yet they are happy! That’s because for them, work is fun. They are playing make believe like we did when we were kids.
I’ll explain. There is now time, and there is sacred time, or a time of festivals, or holy days. They all get together and reenact their stories of how the gods created the world. They all participate in this event. They ritually recreate the world every so often. They do this at the new year, when they build a new building, start a war, or when someone is sick and they want to recreate the person. It brings the sacred time of the creation into the present. As they do this over and over, it regularly brings it into the present. Soon all their activities are mimicking that creation. While they work they are play acting the creation. Time becomes circular instead of linear - all time becomes sacred time.
Usually their stories involve a god, hero, or ancestor battling a big sea monster or snake. In the Old Testament they call him Leviathan. The snake symbolizes the chaos or darkness of the first day of creation when light was divided from darkness or chaos. Of course the god, hero, or ancestor kills the snake and creation comes forth.
So, when the hunters in Primal Societies go out to hunt an antelope for supper, they pretend to be, or in a sense become, the hero or ancestor going out hunting. (They are having fun!) And the moms, cleaning the house or grinding corn, are creating order out of chaos.
Whenever builders place a cornerstone, they drive a stake into the ground at that point. In doing so, they are creating. That means they are symbolically driving the stake through the snake’s head. Each creation does the same.
So faced with my dust and laundry and mess each day I too can recreate the world! I too can kill the snake and bring order out of chaos! I have that opportunity every day. And I can do it just like my god, or hero, or ancestor did. Does that sound like fun?
That is the meaning of dust, mess, and laundry – a constant opportunity to practice creating worlds.
I have finally found it’s meaning…by studying about Primal Religions.
Most of the tribal people who practice these religions face an endless round of toil for their daily subsistence. They don’t have the means to escape, like vacations, TV, internet, movies, etc., yet they are happy! That’s because for them, work is fun. They are playing make believe like we did when we were kids.
I’ll explain. There is now time, and there is sacred time, or a time of festivals, or holy days. They all get together and reenact their stories of how the gods created the world. They all participate in this event. They ritually recreate the world every so often. They do this at the new year, when they build a new building, start a war, or when someone is sick and they want to recreate the person. It brings the sacred time of the creation into the present. As they do this over and over, it regularly brings it into the present. Soon all their activities are mimicking that creation. While they work they are play acting the creation. Time becomes circular instead of linear - all time becomes sacred time.
Usually their stories involve a god, hero, or ancestor battling a big sea monster or snake. In the Old Testament they call him Leviathan. The snake symbolizes the chaos or darkness of the first day of creation when light was divided from darkness or chaos. Of course the god, hero, or ancestor kills the snake and creation comes forth.
So, when the hunters in Primal Societies go out to hunt an antelope for supper, they pretend to be, or in a sense become, the hero or ancestor going out hunting. (They are having fun!) And the moms, cleaning the house or grinding corn, are creating order out of chaos.
Whenever builders place a cornerstone, they drive a stake into the ground at that point. In doing so, they are creating. That means they are symbolically driving the stake through the snake’s head. Each creation does the same.
So faced with my dust and laundry and mess each day I too can recreate the world! I too can kill the snake and bring order out of chaos! I have that opportunity every day. And I can do it just like my god, or hero, or ancestor did. Does that sound like fun?
That is the meaning of dust, mess, and laundry – a constant opportunity to practice creating worlds.
posted by Mom and Dad at 10:28 AM
4 Comments:
I'm glad that you've found meaning.
This is all very interesting. I understand that the joy comes from either pretending that we are creating, or being a part of a tradition that has been for many generations, or that it helps us to be thankful for the creation. That is an interesting connection. I do have a few questions just to clarify some of this new information that you are teaching. Who would be involved in these primal religions? Adam and Eve? Moses? Noah? Other people who didn't have the rest of the gospel? I was just wondering.
Also, where in the Old Testament do we learn about a snake called Leviathan? I don't remember a snake in the creation story.
Tribal cultures have all sorts of gods. God can be a squash or a monkey or whatever. For me, Jesus Christ created the earth. I would be imitating mother Eve. The creation story is repeated 3 times in the scriptures. That means it is very important. I really think that peole in the Old and New Testament acted out the creation story too, but repeated the Adam and Eve story instead of a story about a squash or monkey. All the things that I wrote also have great meaning when you put it in context with the temple.
Leviathan, and dragon is mentioned several times in the Bible: Job 41:1; Ps 74:14, 104:26; Is 27:1; see Dragon and Dragons in TG, Leviathan and Dragon in BD.
In our creation story, Satan talks to Eve in the form of a snake.
Interesting stuff! I'm also intrigued by the concept of sacred time. I had one (or two) question(s) about it - when and how does the sacred time expand from only being about a few activities to being about all activities? You mentioned that there are special events such as the new year, building buildings, etc., which seem to have a special significance, but then that significance expands to include all activities. Does the new year, etc., still retain a special significance as a "really sacred time," or does everything just become the same kind of sacred? And is the sacredness always about creating, or perhaps is there a different kind of sacredness in, for example, rituals which act out redemption from sin?
Here's another idea about why primal cultures are happy about doing their housework (I say this only as some of my own thoughts on the subject; I don't mean to disregard or compete with anything you've said): primal cultures have a kind of life which presents itself as given and unproblematic. Different people have different social statuses, etc., and certain privileges and responsibilities are attached to those statuses. Again, all of this presents itself as given and unproblematic. In our age we are very suspicious of any kind of social status as being given or unproblematic. We constantly tell ourselves that "anything is possible," but in telling ourselves this, we tell ourselves something else: nothing has to be the way that it is. We live in what Heidegger calls the "technological age", an age in which everything and everyone presents itself as having no essential essence. There is no consensus on the "good life", except that everyone should "do your own thing" and "live your life," which really is no direction at all. In such a world, any responsibility or duty presents itself as an imposition, because again, nothing has to be the way that it is, so anything that would impair my freedom to "live my life" just how I want seems unjust.
I think this is the wrong way to look at responsibility and effort. I think we should look at certain activities which require effort, particularly those which are concerned with helping and caring for others (especially children and the elderly), as being "the right kind" of effort and responsibility which are appropriate for healthy human development and learning.
I'll have to ponder about all of your thoughts, but off the top of my head, tribal peoples (since there are thousands of groups in the world, this is a gross oversimplification) seek to comform. They are very community dependent. Since their traditions are oral, they are totally dependent on one another to maintain them.
The author of the two books I got most of my info from is Mircea Eliade. He was a religious historian who taught at the University of Chicago in the 1950's and writes about the structure of Primal Religions, which incidently fits nicely into our interpretation of religion. (I suspect Hugh Nibley read all his books, or they read the same books.) From studying this structure of all religions, I've learned A LOT about my own religion. Mary Douglass, another good author, says that the structure is the same, but the content changes. It is the structure that interests me.
I think that the repeating of the action at the festival time, refines the action, which would have gotten sloppy in between. Most of the creating mimics 'how to' for example, plant corn - how the gods came down and showed them how. It's a schooling.
The more we apply our 'creation' story to our own lives, the more we consecrate ourselves, which is the whole point. (I don't think this is the best venue to share all I think about the temple. Just think about it next time you go.)
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