A PROSY ODE TO WASHING DISHES
Our dishwasher doesn’t wash dishes any more. I press the buttons and nothing happens. It needs a new thingummy – an electronic something or other – and that will cost at least half as much as a new dishwasher.
We used to bend down, load it up, put in the detergent, push the button and swish! Swish! Swish! Two or three hours later dishes would be clean and down we would bend again and again to unload and put the dishes in the cupboard. But not anymore! Now the function of our dishwasher is to fill the gap under our kitchen counter where there are no cupboards. It looks great, but it doesn’t do anything.
Now I come to think of it, that dishwasher didn’t used to wash ALL the dishes. It was rather picky. We used to scrape off any obvious food remains, but it never did like removing egg, cookie dough or the lasagna left on the edge of the pan. Frying pans were out of the question! So we sorted before loading and we sorted again when the dishes were “clean”. Washing dishes was always a two part process. The dishwasher washed some and we washed the rest in the sink, always feeling a bit annoyed that the dishwasher was not accomplishing what we thought it ought to do.
We decided to wash dishes by hand, in the sink and let them dry in the dish rack. No more bending down to the bottom rack! All our dishes are now at the handy height of the kitchen counter, ready to grab for the next meal.
I don’t miss that dishwasher!
Painful arthritis in our hands is now relieved. Hot soapy water soothes away the painful ache leaving our fingers tingling, warm and relaxed; a good feeling that spreads throughout the body.
I don’t miss that dishwasher!
Of course, washing dishes by hand is a boring task, but it’s so good to be bored! To have time for my mind to wander, to ponder, to sort things out that have been buzzing around in my brain in a muddle, to make a plan of some good little thing that will bring a smile on another’s face as well as mine. There are least two other people who also feel boredom is a good thing. Brene Brown quotes Sherry Turkle as saying, “Boredom is your imagination calling to you.” I like washing dishes and going on a flight of fancy and imagination! Sometimes a very good idea comes from it and I feel as refreshed as if I were on a mini holiday.
I really don’t miss our dishwasher!
Sometimes someone comes into the kitchen and says, “Oh, let’s get these dishes done!” and we start chatting about what happened that day or a conversation we had. We share our thoughts; we feel listened to, appreciated and understood. And there, gleaming in the dish rack are the fruits of our labours, praising us for a job well done! We have clean dishes, clean counters, a relationship nurtured, happy hands and contented hearts.
No, I don’t miss that dishwasher at all!
by Andrea Kidd
