Art is in the Eye of the Beholder

I’m considering getting a cleaning service. Again. I’ve had them before. It hasn’t gone well.

Two problems. One: something expensive went missing. And it’s not that I know for sure that someone took this item. To be honest, stuff goes missing around our house all the time, cleaning service or no. So it’s more that I will be suspicious if something goes missing again and I don’t like thinking that of someone.

Two: Stuff was never cleaned to my satisfaction. And trust me, I don’t have a high standard of cleanliness! If it looks clean, generally I’m happy. But I kept running into cobwebs right in my line of sight!

Cleaners cost money so I feel the need to justify my want of help around the house. I could tell you that now that I’m working again I don’t have time to clean. But that would be a lie. I could have time. I could forgo a bunch of pastimes that may seem trivial and unnecessary to many more mature people than I am. Things like reading, watching movies, playing Wii Just Dance with the kids (and, if we’re being honest, also without), surfing the Net, blogging, daydreaming, etc. etc. But the fact of the matter is, I’ve decided I want those things in my life and I will no longer feel guilty about it. The problem is, I also want clean toilets.

I had this conversation with myself about it the other day:

I’m cleaning the toilet. I really hate housework. But then I think, what would Eckhart Tolle say? Eckhart would remind me to do things in one of three mindsets: acceptance, enjoyment, bliss. And I agree with this. Some things must be done. Why do them and grumble? It doesn’t change the fact that they need to be done or that they are being done. So why invest negative energy?

In theory. And yet one hard to evoke while cleaning the toilet. Some people enjoy cleaning. My mother, for example. I think she said she finds it calming. In me, though, it provokes feelings of grandeur. Certainly I was put on this earth to do more than clean another person’s shit off of porcelain! I write! I am an artiste! Says who? Who says one task is better than the other? When I am done my task, there is a story! When my mother is done, there is a clean toilet. Mine is art. Art? Art is in the eye of the beholder. Some would call a clean toilet art. Some might compare what I spent 15 minutes writing with, well, shit.