During my undergraduate education, there was a common phenomenon around exam time. The majority of my friends (mostly the women) had spotless apartments and unending supplies of baked goods. It was as if the favoured coping mechanism for stress was domesticity.
I got to thinking about this a little bit in December, when I had roughly five different projects on the go and an entertainingly stress-filled time in my personal life. Despite all the work I had to do, my house was spotless, I had a brief mania for home improvement, and I began to not only keep fresh flowers in the kitchen, but created a complete flower life cycle which involved transitioning wilting flowers to dry conditions in order to ease them into their final state: pot pourri.
All of this seems a little strange to me. I'm used to living among piles of books, computers, chemicals and tools. I don't even like pot pourri.
I'd like to posit, just now, that perhaps some people (I can't really define who) use domesticity as a refuge. Maybe it's a subset of the idea of "clean house, clean mind." But it's a little interesting. Is it just women? Mostly women? Is it a habit of young women, or does it carry across ages and generations? Why do so many university-age women procrastinate during exam time by baking? Most importantly, why the heck do I sublimate agitation into a desire to clean up my living space? When I know that I have any number of things to do, why do I feel the urge to set them to the side and make my house attractive?
I got to thinking about this a little bit in December, when I had roughly five different projects on the go and an entertainingly stress-filled time in my personal life. Despite all the work I had to do, my house was spotless, I had a brief mania for home improvement, and I began to not only keep fresh flowers in the kitchen, but created a complete flower life cycle which involved transitioning wilting flowers to dry conditions in order to ease them into their final state: pot pourri.
All of this seems a little strange to me. I'm used to living among piles of books, computers, chemicals and tools. I don't even like pot pourri.
I'd like to posit, just now, that perhaps some people (I can't really define who) use domesticity as a refuge. Maybe it's a subset of the idea of "clean house, clean mind." But it's a little interesting. Is it just women? Mostly women? Is it a habit of young women, or does it carry across ages and generations? Why do so many university-age women procrastinate during exam time by baking? Most importantly, why the heck do I sublimate agitation into a desire to clean up my living space? When I know that I have any number of things to do, why do I feel the urge to set them to the side and make my house attractive?
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