Mundane Pleasures

 I often find pleasure in rather mundane, mindless and senseless tasks. Tasks which most people probably would not list as their favorite activities in life. Most people dread shoveling snow, mowing the lawn, washing the dishes and painting a wall. Not that I always eagerly seek out such "chores." Sometimes, especially in my busy past, I would and will go to extreme lengths to avoid such senseless, mindless and repetitive endeavors. These very characteristics are exactly what I seek out sometimes, especially now that I am living the leisure life of retirement. Maybe mindless activity is a perfect fit for my now daft mind. 

Gardening, digging in the dirt, pulling weeds, harvesting the procedes are all cyclic and repetitive. Some people would argue that it certainly isn't mindless or senseless. They plan their gardens; measure their soil chemistry; arrange their planting for maximum yield or beauty.  They would argue, "gardening certainly is not senseless, it provides tasty and healthy food after all ." They may be right but I prefer to keep my garden mindless and senseless. I can easily obtain all the tasty and healthy food I desire from the grocery store and probably at less cost and time than I put into my garden. Its a good thing too! If I had to feed myself from my garden I would be one skinny dude. I also like to keep my gardening mindless. Sure I think about what and where I want to plant but I do it on the spur of the moment, not according to specific instructions from a book. Yes, sometimes i will read about gardening or watch a video on the subject but mainly just for background information.  Basically I just play. Feeling the warmth of the sun on my back and the coolness of the soil in my fingers.  Watching the beetles and spiders scampering about in the leaf litter. I love it that three is no-one around to tell me I'm doing it all wrong. I do it however I feel like doing it at the time.

Many people, especially men, grumble about mowing the lawn or shoveling snow. I rather enjoy both activities. Like gardening, there is no one around to bitch about how I am doing it. I can mow the grass in squares or diagonals or even circles if I can figure out how to do so. I can pick any starting point that suits my fancy even if my choice results in re-shoveling or re-mowing a given spot. I can strive for the utmost efficiency or I can forget efficiency and just strive to hold off working in one area so as to not disturb a rabbit or squirrel or bird that is hanging out at a given location. I can inhale the smells of the warm grass or the sharp bite of the cold night air. While the lawn mowers growl can be mesmerizing I think I prefer the scrape of the shovel and the dull thud of snow "frurrumping" into drifts. Once again, basically I just play.

Now that I find myself becoming a mindless old man even dishwashing can be be pleasurable. This certainly was not the case in my younger years. I have owned several automatic dishwashers (mechanical ones, not wives and children.) I used to refer to those machines as, "marriage savers," as they saved my marriage from collapsing into a heap of moldering plates and pans. If one broke down it became a priority to repair or replace it. I could write an entire history on the lives and demise of the dishwashers I have owned but not in this post. Now I often find soaking my old hands in the warm,sudsy water quite pleasing, even mildly erotic, especially if its a cold day. Yes, I still bitch, "Cindy, why didn't you at least rinse this cup after you drank this sticky creme soup out of it?" Or, "You could of at least taken your paper napkin off the plate before you threw it in the sink!" But the memories of the tasty meals that dirtied the dishes and the love shared while eating them also warms my heart as the water warms my hands. Washing dishes leaves me feeling grateful and maybe a bit guilty over the abundance in my life. I can't say that I really play while doing the dishes, at least not the way small children do when they do. Maybe some day I will learn to be more childlike again, For now I'll just settle for the sensuality of the water warming my hands while memories of meals and time spent at the sink with my mom or sister warm my heart.