I'm being a housewife this week, kind of, a weirdly-humored impostor or enfant terrible of housewives. I no longer have a politics class to attend; I'm waiting for the anthropology class that comes next week. The administrators here told me if I made trouble with all my spare time, they'd evict me. No fear. I love to clean, as I have told you, and I'm in the only unbusy person in my messy cabin. So my cabinmates and classmates and I all eat breakfast together, then they leave for class and I stay behind. (I remember when I was little and stayed home from school sick or "sick," how envious I was of my mother, that she had the empty house and day apparently to herself.) I sweep the dirt out of the entryway, out from among their shoes, out the door like Disney Snow White. I sweep up the hair on the bathroom tiles. I clean the sinks and handwash clothes in them. I prop doors open and open blinds and windows and turn off lights and am at a loss. I stroll around with a roll of 800 staring at my absent peers' rumpled sheets and dresser-top still lifes in the mid-morning light. Still lives?
In the afternoon they come home and do their homework while I take my turn playing the suburban neurotic, back in bed blank-eyed and headphoned; they are old enough for ovens and to make their own oatmeal cookies. I recover in time each day to preside at night over the variously timed fallings-asleep and then slouch in the dark in the light of my awful LCD for two hours. I'm either reading free anarchist downloads until I can sleep, or I'm making playlists until I can sleep. I'm slouching in the dark in the false and small electric/blue daylight among the shifting unconscious sophomores, cultivating praxis inside the flannel of my sleeping bag.
i'm at the opposite side of the spectrum -- such a busy bee this week. you can always work on your German poetry. haha. or watch k-dramas. ;P
ReplyDeleteodessa - the thing is, I'm kinda in the middle of nowhere and even the internet is on the limited side. hence sprawling around a lot. but anyway -- I hope your end of the year paperwork gets done without too much more insanity!
ReplyDeleteAh, I like cleaning too. That sounds relaxing.
ReplyDeleteAre you an anarchist?
Jenica - Don't know enough to give a yes at present. I suspect further reading will lead me to say that I have sympathetic leanings, but not more. Christian anarchism, however, is a different matter. It is quite possible that I will identify as a Christian anarchist after I have thought and read more...anyway, thank you for asking.
ReplyDeletesuch a good writer, you.
ReplyDeleteAh, okay. I understand. I'm a limited-government type, myself. I don't put enough faith in humanity to think a large group could handle itself with no authority. But now I must ask what a Christian anarchist is. No ministers/elders/deacons...no pope...?
ReplyDeleteErin - Hi. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteJenica - 1) What do you think about consensus to govern groups? 2) Christian anarchism as I understand it so far: a rejection of earthly authority, force, and hierarchy. We all submit to one another in love because we are all equal under Christ and ultimately submit to Christ -- directly to him.
Sorry I'm still a little clueless about what exactly you mean, but I'll try to answer...
ReplyDelete1) Consensus to govern groups: you mean, do whatever the most people agree on? Total democracy/majority rule? Well, I'd say it may be better than the opposite (totalitarian rule of few)--maybe--and it can be pretty scary. Like the French revolution, when the majority who were all peasants guillotined hundreds in the aristocratic minority. Even in Greece w/ the city states, it had some terrible results; take Socrates, voted into killing himself by the majority. So I think that minorities have to be protected too, which of course is why we have a Senate. (Now of course I'll find out you didn't mean majority rule at all, but hey...) 2) I'm still not sure if you're refering to Christians being above actual governments or just having no church hierarchy...? I do think that some people were sort of authorities even during New Testament times, like Paul, but even he and the original disciples didn't have the same sort of total church power as, say, the Pope. I'm not clear on it all but I think they were more authorities on the mind/will of God, if you know what I mean. But like anyone with great respect, they were followed and people went to them with disputes etc. And there were elders appointed in churches, but I'm not clear on what exactly their job was either; similar, on a smaller level? ...I'm so woefully uninformed, geez. But I'm happy to keep uninformedly discussing.
A little jealous honestly, I enjoy cleaning. Curious as to your opinion on how "Christian anarchism" is biblical.
ReplyDeleteJenica- sorry just had to cut in, there are still elders appointed in churches, but at least in every church I've been to, they were merely responsible for leading and caring for the body of church members; beyond just our job as Christians to care for one another, it's (in most cases) a full time job. It's just that they're, as the name implies, our elders and a good source of counsel and wisdom when it comes to needing spiritual help provided in the form of scripture.
Jenica - 1) Nope, consensus as opposed to democracy -- the model of relatively small groups governed by total consensus. 2) More like the former, though it also (often or always?) presumes egalitarianism.
ReplyDeletegeekspawn - Are those scare quotes I see, Faith? *eyebrow* I'm still learning and considering; I don't know enough to explain or defend, nor am I interested in doing so... We can talk farther down the road if you want. Prod me at the end of the summer.
P.S. You and Jenica are not only close in age but excellent in similar ways.
geekspawn - no problem! haha, thanks for the input. I guess that's what I think of when I think of elders (just less articulated) but also in some churches I've been to they decide who gets other positions of authority in the church.
ReplyDeleteholly - 1) Well, I still don't get it, orz. I guess I don't understand how you differentiate between consensus and democracy. Don't they both end up with what most people agree on--and thus majority rule? The small groups model sounds like ancient Greece...p.s. any time you're sick of discussing, please tell me. I love discussing, probably a little too much.
2) I'd reiterate geekspawn's question, only I already saw your answer. Maybe I'll prod you later...
p.p.s. why thanks, you're excellent also.
Jenica - Consensus as in unanimous, because all should be equally invested in holding the group together (and benefitting from that arrangement) yet all are equally free to leave to join or form another group. That's the theory. Nods.
ReplyDelete