A chore is usually described as the regular or daily light work of a household or farm. The word chore is a variant of the Middle English word ‘chare’ meaning ‘odd job’. The word in its present form evolved around mid 18th century and found wide acceptance first in US and then elsewhere.
A common connotation of the word also embraces boredom and regularity within its ambit. They are also at times deemed difficult and disagreeable.
Some argue that boring is a meaning assigned to an event, as nothing is inherently boring. In defence of chores it is said that they may be made so interesting, engaging and entertaining that one does not need to think about them while engaged in them.
And the chores could be culture specific and country specific. In India, for instance, many chores so commonly done in, let’s say, US, does not fall within the remit of chores. Cleaning the toilets, for instance, invariably is carried out by a designated set of people, while professions have evolved and grown to undertake many house hold chores common performed by the members of family in other cultures.
And then chores are gender biased as well. In many cultures certain chores are reserved for women while many become an exclusive preserve of men.
But doing chores is an unescapable and inalienable part of our lives. They are obviously boring, so boring that studies have been conducted to find out which of the chores are the most boring. By common consensus, cleaning bathrooms is America’s most hated chore, or put properly, the least favourite chore. Other chores that men would avoid doing at home include washing dishes and doing laundry.
Chores could also be construed in a much wider and deeper perspective. What if its ambit were expanded to include many activities that do not strictly fall within the conventional house hold work? Teaching one’s children for instance. Many may dispute it as a household chore and yet it’s an extremely important activity for those families that have children. Many of such activities may not be either tedious or boring. While such activities do not qualify as the daily routine activity of the household, they may, by choice, become an integral aspect of one’s quotidian existence. I believe, the proposition for the blog today, then, assumes a greater canvas and diversity.
I would prefer to treat all the activities that fill my day with equal respect and resignation, as I genuinely believe that all that falls to your lot deserve acceptance with energy and enthusiasm. And yet, I have never felt reconciled to one activity that saps my energy as no other. For me washing the utensils is unreservedly the most challenging of the daily chores that has fallen to my lot. I do enjoy cooking and I would have taken to it far more enthusiastically had it also not entailed cleaning up after cooking. The surge of creativity and the satisfaction of creation gets substantially subdued when it comes to cleaning the utensils and dishes which had so delightfully helped only moments ago, realise one’s culinary imaginations. I find no music, no rhythm, no stimulation in smearing the pots and pans with detergent soap and placing them under the stream of water while constantly moving them to obtain a satisfactory outcome. I wish technology one day will surely find ways that can make this residual aspect of cooking completely redundant.
In a blog discussing chores and challenges, the therapist Karen Koenig opines that it may be advisable to turn chores into challenges and challenges into acts of love. Taking the discussion to a different plane she argues that chores may not necessarily be tedious and boring, that it is possible to convert boring routine acts into exciting enterprises. But I find it difficult to get convinced. Turning cleaning and dusting into a passion, and washing dishes into a likeable challenge is a proposition my mind and heart steadfastly refuse to accept as an activity that one would ever stoop down to love!
How much I wish I could agree with her and turn my challenge into an opportunity and an act of love. Ideally, reaching such a sense of detachment to pains and pleasures of life, is a state of mind I aspire and covet. But in all likelihood, it is still a dream, an elusive mirage!
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