{"id":793,"date":"2020-03-20T22:35:38","date_gmt":"2020-03-20T21:35:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifesfinest.pl\/?p=793"},"modified":"2020-04-29T18:40:25","modified_gmt":"2020-04-29T16:40:25","slug":"domestic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifesfinest.pl\/en\/domestic\/","title":{"rendered":"The Domestic Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the fine mid-March day when the government made the decision to shut down all
\neducational institutions (kindergartens and universities included), I found myself thinking. \u201cOK, it\u2019s<\/em>
\nback to holiday mode. All kids at home and less outside work to do<\/em>.\u201d Since I\u2019m home with my
\nyoungest most of the week anyway, I did not feel intimidated or at a loss. I knew how to make the
\ntransition to all-encompassing home life. Plus I knew that the stakes were high given the ubiquity of
\nthe virus.<\/p>\n

It was a day or two later that I experienced a sudden mood plunge and it took me by surprise.
\nA temporary suspension of classes is not a good enough reason to despair even if I miss my students
\nand colleagues (I do), I figured. What was behind that sadness then?<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what I discovered: I felt miserable because I must have become exceedingly
\nattached to my outside-of-home self. At home, I do chores, I do things for my kids, I cook and feed
\nour family of five. Every single day, a similar routine resumes and it seems never-ending. There are
\nfew pats on the back in the process. Of course, my heart leaps when I behold my husband and the
\nchildren and I hear a \u201cthank you\u201d now and then, but\u2026.. my outside endeavors, I realized, granted me
\na peerless sense of accomplishment. Now, that venue of glory is gone.<\/p>\n

It is our irremediable and only-too-human tendency to turn to things and projects that add outside
\nsubstance (and fluff) to our lives. We have been taught to roam streets, travel places, seek
\nentertainment and affirmation outside of our homes. We have forgotten that we can indeed live
\nmeaningful lives without all that extra buzz. We can live our life in hiding and make those around us
\nhappier and better, spoonful by spoonful, one bite at a time. Better still, even if we are too ill or
\nweak to make ours or anyone else\u2019s life objectively better, God still loves us and wants us here on
\nearth, until we breathe our last.<\/p>\n

Still, we are geared towards outside affirmation, all the way to death, and beyond.<\/p>\n

Many books (most of them by well-meaning American authors) encourage readers to visualize their
\nown funeral in order to find motivation here and now. While I agree that it is not a bad suggestion
\naltogether, as it helps one to focus on the kind of legacy they want to leave behind, I think it is also
\nteaches us to concentrate on outside validation. Consider this (I actually thought about it about a
\nmonth ago, and the present plague makes it crystal clear, at least in Italy): there may be no time for a
\nfancy funeral. You might be buried in a hurry, with no town committees or teary-eyed friends
\npresent. But that doesn\u2019t mean that you are worth less than the many individuals whose lives are
\ncelebrated with speeches and whose coffins are adorned with lavish flower arrangements.<\/p>\n

I think that this time of quiet homemaking is a gift of sorts, as it reveals our value as human beings
\nand co-creators of the domestic universe. We have become simplified against our will, but it can do
\nus some good. We are now primarily kings and queens of domesticity, with no \u201curgent business\u201d or
\n\u201cimportant appointments\u201d to keep us away from our hearth, as satisfying and edifying as they might
\nhave seemed to us previously.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the fine mid-March day when the government made the decision to shut down all educational institutions (kindergartens and universities…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifesfinest.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifesfinest.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifesfinest.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifesfinest.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifesfinest.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=793"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lifesfinest.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":797,"href":"https:\/\/lifesfinest.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793\/revisions\/797"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifesfinest.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifesfinest.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifesfinest.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifesfinest.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}