tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post7016411743950192350..comments2024-03-28T17:53:43.541-04:00Comments on DarwinCatholic: The Summer of my DishcontentDarwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08572976822786862149noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-72140949678751005722015-09-09T06:35:03.964-04:002015-09-09T06:35:03.964-04:00+JMJ+
This reminds me of a discussion I once had...+JMJ+ <br /><br />This reminds me of a discussion I once had with Pentimento, inspired by her homeschooling of her sons. We talked about the cognitive dissonance we feel building "Noah's arks" (my term, if I recall correctly) for our families while people seem to be drowning right outside our doors. Of course, on the other side of the world, people are <i>literally</i> drowning. Is there a way to meet everyone's needs while still acknowledging that, yes, the poor will always be with us? <br /><br />I confess that I am one of those who think the cost of accepting every last refugee, or even a goodly number of them, is far too high. Years ago, when the first boats started arriving in Italy, I wondered why the Italian navy or coast guard weren't doing anything to stem the tide. And now that a tidal wave seems to have broken all over Europe, I simply can't imagine how the people who were already calling it home--and who might have already been contributing to foreign aid--are going to cope. I'm hoping I'm just being a terrible pessimist. Of course I want everything to work out, although right now I can't imagine anything beyond a collapse. <br /><br />I must add that I've seen this sort of thing from the perspective of someone who must spell it "<i>e</i>migration" (because the people are going out) and have been tempted to be an illegal alien myself. There but for the grace of God went I--but I'm still more than a little turned off that so many able-bodied young men are simply abandoning their country, when they are precisely the sort who it needs the most at the moment. I have a friend in the US who has very positive feelings toward immigrants and likes to say that they "enrich" the communities they join. I once retorted, "Yeah, after they impoverish the communities they leave behind." And I mentioned a German trainee from my previous job who told me that one reason Hitler rose to power so easily was that many of the Germans who might have been able to provide a political buffer had decided to leave their country after the Great War. I haven't checked that with an historian, but I buy it because a similar movement in the Philippines after World War II contributed to the rise of our own dictator. <br /><br />And yet I don't want to bind people to each other with chains that may not even exist. (Am I not the one who spent years substituting "Simbahang Katoliko" for "bansang Pilipinas" when reciting the obligatory daily patriotic pledge? And I'd do it again if I had to say the pledge tomorrow!) Sometimes your choices are just your own and don't have to carry the weight of your country's destiny. If you can make a better life for your family somewhere else, then your obligation to them is clear. But neither is it fair, I think, to make other people pay for that better life. And I think in the case of much illegal immigration and this refugee crisis, other people will be paying through the nose for something they had no hand in creating. <br /><br />PS -- We've never had a dishwasher. My mother's rule is that everyone has to wash his own plate, glass, and cutlery; so we all line up to do so after dinner. She herself does the pots and pans. It's not the most efficient use of water, but she says it keeps her sane. Enbrethilielhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03414765854670926854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-17494316880391532402015-09-08T14:18:13.425-04:002015-09-08T14:18:13.425-04:00We recently moved, and one of the consolations for...We recently moved, and one of the consolations for having 3/5 of the space we used to have is that we now have a half-size dishwasher. We hadn't had a functioning dishwasher for nine years. It makes life simpler, but I don't see that it's making anyone here more faithful (one could pray while washing dishes) or develop a better work ethic (kids need something real to grumble about or it all spins out of control). So I'm thinking the give-back in having this luxury is deciding how we're going to use the extra time it offers us.<br /><br />Before we moved we had to do a lot of plastering and painting, most of which I did as breaks from doing freelance projects. I found that the physical labor, while ostensibly tedious, was a good complement to the more mentally taxing work. When I used chores to fill the interstices of the day instead of thought of them as chores per say, it was easier to pray while doing them. It may be a good thing to offer up the painting for the refugees. <br /><br />I also taught my 11yo how to plaster and paint. That was useful for both of us. <br /><br /><br />Juliahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06668252458131596362noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-39424417592129470272015-09-05T12:26:27.375-04:002015-09-05T12:26:27.375-04:00I'm chewing over your post, and then coming ba...I'm chewing over your post, and then coming back to chew it over again... but wanted to say: I love your title. I didn't even notice the "h" the first time I visited, but got a sudden giggle out of it on the second read :)mandamumnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-14596795110778346372015-09-05T08:58:05.713-04:002015-09-05T08:58:05.713-04:00This comment is in a way related to your earlier p...This comment is in a way related to your earlier post "Do Over", which I did not manage to comment on(we were on holiday with limited Internet acccess) but I felt a strong connection to that topic and shared most of it with my husband, thinking he'd appreciate the similarity with our own life (the dinner-to-bed chaos, and the lack of time to pray for example) Well, he did, but what he first commented on was "what is wrong with their dishwasher that they couldn't fix it in 3 months?" Thoughts of your dishwasher (as a metaphor for your family/situation))kept returning ever since and I'm happy to see an update from another angle. <br />I find it easy to relate to the difficulty of managing all the upkeep and repair issues in the home, although more on the practical level than the moral level you mention. Living in Hungary as middle class family, I have less money to distribute between our own life (comfort level and beauty) and charity. Still, I live in a country refugees come to, rather than in a country people flee from, which is important to remember instead of being sorry for myself which people in my country are wont to do.<br />Thank you for this reminder to the widow in the Bible - it made me think of "giving all I have" perhaps not in the monetary sense, but in making everyday decisions with the willingness to do what God wants us to do, to do what he gave me responsibility to do.Agnesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-19522807537973749772015-09-03T21:22:12.636-04:002015-09-03T21:22:12.636-04:00It's true. I think a lot of it has to do with...It's true. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact it's summer, so the kids have been eager to play outside until 9pm or so, at which point we want to put them straight to bed. And when it's hot, we are all to grateful for the chance not to move in the early evening mugginess and post dinner lethargy. So we end up tackling the dishes around 10pm after everyone's down. That, and the hideously non-functional single sink set up this kitchen has makes washing dishes tricky enough I haven't had much desire to try teaching the kids.<br /><br />Though, let the record be clear, I wash the dishes a good half of the time. It's not always MrsDarwin. But one can't qualify one's description endlessly or it becomes less poetic.Darwinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08572976822786862149noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-91574495030510541072015-09-03T20:39:41.394-04:002015-09-03T20:39:41.394-04:00Methinks you have children who are old enough to w...Methinks you have children who are old enough to wash dishes. :-) My mom started me on that chore as soon as I was tall enough to reach the sink with my younger brothers as dish dryers. (My younger sisters had a bitter theory that the only reason my mom had children was to ensure a continuing supply of dishwashers.)Catholic Bibliophagisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10697706672495544901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-60289243220729203892015-09-03T15:47:28.091-04:002015-09-03T15:47:28.091-04:00Don't forget laundry, that too is always with ...Don't forget laundry, that too is always with us.Ana Mariahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09733710862603629370noreply@blogger.com