I am comfort re-reading The Red Tent. It becomes a twice yearly event I think. The desire to steep myself in women. Driving this morning into the dreaded supermarket car park all I could see were boxes. Little cubes of prison. Cars, houses and the invisible boxes people walk around in -managing to keep themselves locked away, eyes glazed, defying one to smile. How did we get so fast from the communities of past, the communal living of extended family and kin to living in such isolation behind our 'civilised' walls...? I read about Dianh and her mother's tents, the self sufficiency of their lives. It seems idyllic. Of course I am the women with hands and feet that are soft with leisure (actually my hands are raw and chafted from dish washing) but really I am a lady of leisure with water running luxuriously from my taps, food aplenty; keeping chilled in my fridge. I don't yearn for this to disappear, I would be quite sad without long hot baths and electricity for night time-light reading. I think a part of me misses the women I might have had around me, day to day, to lighten the load of being so often alone.
Our box. Our ahem, home, is going to be re-painted this long Easter weekend. Our estate agent pointed out that not everyone might like a hot-pink kitchen. Our bright green sitting room walls need to be 'toned down'. How dull. Well, I picked our a lemony zesty primrose colour for the kitchen. Neutral is supposed to be the key word for selling houses. The rest of the downstairs including major task hallway is going to be painted in that pale pinky peach of the Waldorf kindergarten. But much lighter. My choice of course. It will all look very plain and neutral. But Don reminded me that it will not look like our home, no, but that is just it -we don't want it to be our home anymore.! True, true, true. Silly to get sad over my hot-pink walls being blanded over. I can always take that trusty tin of pink with me :)
2 comments:
I know what you mean dear sister about people all enclosed in there own little world's/boxes. No smiles from a random person as they walk past you, no acknowlegment as yuo smile at them. It seems that the times of community spirit and looking out for others is long gone. Boxed people no longer want /or seem to desire the spending of time with others, other then those in their own little 'boxed houses' anymore. It's so sad that as i walk down my street of 3 years, out of the 8 houses there is only 2 who will make the effort to speak, 5 may or not smile and 1 does not even acknowlege i even exist (even though we have mowed their lawn and edged it a few times, when they were in!!!). But even though it does feel like at times we are boxed in to a society that few like us do not want to be boxed in to, at least we have the head space and the thoughts to appreciate what we do have and only hope that others will soon emerge from their little enclosements and join us. We also have cars that we can drive to other more like minded communities such as Botton Village etc! P.s i also think it quite natural for one to feel alone sometimes, i bet even the women of the 'Red Tent' like to enjoy their aloneness and one with themselves and nature....:-) x x x
Best regards from NY! » » »
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