These words to live by are from my loving and gentle spouse. She coined the phrase a couple of days ago in response to my ha-bitch-ual comments about the one-snout-away-from-a-pigstyle house that we live in. Since that time, this phrase has roiled around in my frontal lobes and come to have a much wider applicability than at first thought.
See, the problem is, as anyone who has been around children or has started out life as a child (Mark Twain), kids don't pick anything up without being harped at. Merely demonstrating the process does not typically inspire imitation. There's nothing in it for them, after all. If they had the ability to understand that leaving stuff strewn in the living space is both dangerous and unaesthetic, there would probably be no issue. As it is, it is much handier to leave stuff where you'll be sure to be intrigued by it another time.
Well, in the course of talking about this as if there were any potential cure for it, J came out with a few ideas as to how behavior can be altered best by simple means, such as posting helpful reminder signs on every vertical surface. Not all of the children, of course, can read, but most can. And in considering the wording, she considered the need.
In our tiny inadequate corridor kitchen, we have a water cooler, two sinks, a garbage pail, two recycle bins, a can crusher and a dishwasher. At any given time of the day, one or more of these devices is bound to be full to overflowing.
Hence, the brilliant relevancy of J's sign (which she has yet to make because her desk is too full to find the sign-making supplies, but that's for another day). For consider this: if the dishwasher is full, it needs to be emptied. If the dishwasher has not been run yet, it needs to be started, and after an appropriate interval, emptied. If the sink is full, it needs to be emptied into the dishwasher and/or garbage depending on contents. If the dining room table is full of dishes, the table needs to be emptied at least into the sink, but preferably into the dishwasher. If the garbage is full, it needs to be emptied outside into the garbage containers. If they are full, they need to be taken to the curb, or set aside for collection. If the water container is empty it needs to be filled.
To this new J's Law, I would add a few corollaries. If the basement is full, it needs to be emptied into the garage. If the garage is full, it needs to be emptied into a garage sale. If the rug is full, it needs to be cleared (of toys and Cheerios and clothes and books, as well as dirt). If the countertops are full, food and appliances need to be put away. If the refrigerator is empty, we need to go shopping. If the stomach is empty it needs to be filled.
And so I wait for a sign.
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4 comments:
Somehow I don't always manage to keep up with my favorite bloggers on a regular basis -- which often requires a marathon catch-up session. Which is why I'm doing a two-fer here.
One: loved your take on "leapers" -- the rest of us do tend to forget the ramifications of that extra day, like right-handers blissfully ignore the needs of left-handers. If it doesn't apply to us, we don't see it. [sigh]
Two: Jo's most admirable fill/empty instruction -- I applaud the sentiments and the sheer practicality. And I wish you both luck. I have trouble applying that concept just to myself. (smile)
Thank you, Dee. All I can say is, "Thank you, Dee." It's so nice to be understood, let alone sympathized with.
And just a note: we read you every time you publish anything. You are quint-essential.
Unfortunately your wife did not coin this phrase...it was coined by Wallis Simpson, Duches of Windsor
Perhaps Wallis didn't coin it either, although she may well have in translating it from the original Chinese. In America, the meaning has shifted from "creating a phrase" to "applying a cliche", so that one never knows nowadays which polarity is in play. I apologize for the hackneyed usage if it gives offense. It is as plain as the nose on my face, to coin a phrase, that I could have been mistaken.
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