Friday, December 12, 2008

Folding Laundry...

There are things in this world that are just plain simple and nice. Plain simple and nice like hot towels fresh out of the dryer, the smell of bleach and soap and that wierd heat smell that burns off from the dryer - folding laundry is one of those plain things that we all complain about - but the reality of it is that it is one of the few things we actually have control over - you can fold laundry if you like, you can set it down if you don't, you can put it in piles, or make neat creases in everything - you don't have to really think about what you are doing, it just seems to come natural, underwear in half, towels in thirds and then rolled, wash clothes get folded in squares, socks mated together....mindless and easy.

I like simple things. Most things we do these days are complicated by some derivative of what they were originally meant to be, baseball has steroids, football has dog fights and stripper clubs, television has ratings, books have followers - it is almost as if everything that had some sense of pleasure for us as children has been turned into a statement about something else - think about it, what simple joys in life are left - with the exception of family time - that don't have to be paid for and commentary made.

That's why I like folding laundry. Very rarely, if ever, do you see a newspaper headline detailing the scandalous nature of washing dirty clothes, or the washing machine heist of 2009, or the great dryer debate - it is just one of those things that comes natural. You fold laundry. You wash clothes. You just do it, and you don't have to think about it, you just do it. People crave scandal and detail and they crave getting into and hearing about and helping and seeing - but very rarely do they ever offer to help fold laundry.

Me, I like folding laundry. Politics, Finances, Religion, etc etc etc - they may be the cannon fodder of the high browed and well read, but personally, I like laundry.

Well, that's enough about laundry. I was at the gym today thinking of other mindless activities that really don't cost much, and seem to have the similar affect as folding laundry:

1. The dishwasher.
2. Eight Track Cassette Players.
3. Monopoly.
4. Picking Lint off of your favorite sweater.
5. BB Guns and Beer Cans.
6. Building Sheet Forts with the kids.
7. Super Glue and anything.
8. Hotel Soap and Shampoo.
9. Counting Road lights or stripes as you are driving.
10. Those fuzzy dart balls and ball boards.

Me, I like top ten lists too. Mindless. Numbing, and still strangely appealing to me.

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