This spring I’ve felt something akin to survivor’s guilt when I see the weather forecasts coming out of Calgary, and in the rest of Canada in general: heavy snowfall after heavy snowfall. I almost feel guilty that things are in bloom and I’ve been out in the garden for weeks! We have had a dry winter and spring, so hopefully that doesn’t spell doom when it comes to forest fire season. Well, there’s no point mentally rehearsing for bad things to happen; either they will happen or they won’t, I don’t need to dwell on it. Instead I will just focus on what’s in front of me.
Speaking of not mentally rehearsing for doom, the news continues to be objectively horrible and frankly terrifying. Recently both my friends Suz and Bijoux (HI SUZ HI BIJOUX) gently reminded me that whatever happens in 2026, our great-grandmothers had it much worse. I think there’s room for both feelings: gratitude to be living in the modern age where we have such luxuries as the vote and refrigerators, and sadness that the current masters of the universe are insane, evil clowns who value human lives just slightly more than they do mosquitoes.
But Suz and Bijoux are right; my great-grandmothers’ lives were extremely hard and full of tragedy. One of my great-grandmothers died in childbirth, and another had a number of unspeakable hardships imposed on her by the various men in her life. And the only thing worse than having oppressive, unkind men was to have no man at all – my grandma was widowed in her thirties, with no money and six kids aged twelve and under. Life was, to put it mildly, not easy for her. Two of my grandmas had babies who died, and all of these women lived through the Depression and World War II.
Meanwhile, here I am, brushing my dog’s teeth.
They also had to do laundry by hand, and if there is anything that should make us grateful to live in this moment in time, it’s the invention of the washing machine. Of all the household chores, the laundry is the absolute easiest to deal with: dirty clothes are put into one machine and then, wet clean clothes are transferred to another. It’s magical! It’s a miracle of the modern age!
My husband’s grandmother, in whose house we now reside, worked for a time at the laundry in the hospital, and if there is a more physically taxing, miserable job than that, I don’t know what it is. Just think of all those heavy soiled sheets and blankets and towels, being washed by hand on a scrub board, and then wrung out and hung to dry. Imagine the state of your hands. Just doing laundry for a household would be difficult enough, what with the hauling and heating of water, and the misery that would be diapers. But working as a laundress in a hospital setting? I’m exhausted just thinking about it.
Adjacent to the daily appreciation I feel for my washing machine – “He worked hard, Grandpa.” “So do washing machines.” – is the immense gratitude I have for running water. Isn’t it amazing that we have it? So many things have to happen in order for us to have clean, running water: scientists work to ensure that it is safe to drink and workers put that science into action, infrastructure is conceived, built, and maintained to transport that water to our homes, which are plumbed and equipped with heaters so that, with the merest touch of a finger, we are served with water whenever we want it and at the exact temperature we desire. It’s truly a daily miracle. For so many centuries, this was not the usual thing. For so many centuries, a simple bath was an enormous undertaking.
My life is soft and luxurious by any standard, but in comparison to my ancestresses, I might as well be the Princess of Wales.
What was good about them? my mother-in-law once said in response to someone’s pining for the good old days. She’s not wrong. There have been rapid technological changes not just in my lifetime, but also in that of my children’s, who were born before smartphones, streaming, and the maps feature in the car. I remember the wild feeling of being able to pause live television, and the idea that if I like a song, I can simply listen to it on my phone. But just think of the advancements that came into being in our grandmothers’ lives. For one thing: indoor plumbing. Imagine the enormous quality-of-life boost that our grandmothers had when they went from outhouses to indoor bathrooms. I am not sure where this fits on the scale of running water to washing machines, but it’s up there, Steve. A few years ago, I checked the website for the campground at which my family reunion was to be held, and I noticed that they proudly advertised modern flush toilets. It was honestly a selling point to me. Who wants to live without modern flush toilets? Not me. Now it’s become a family joke; whenever my husband books accommodation for a trip, he lets me know that there are modern flush toilets.
I am an optimist by nature, but I do need to take care not to veer into toxic positivity. Earlier this week I wondered if we were indeed going to see a nuclear war, and at least we have toilets was not as cheering as one might think it would be. If my obsessive listening to The Rest Is History has taught me anything, it’s that there have always been despots and atrocities, there have always been men in power who behave terribly, and everything passes. Everything passes, and hopefully we learn and grow, globally. I listened to three episodes on Operation Barbarossa and the Battle of Stalingrad, and all I could think of was Stalin versus Hitler. Stalin versus Hitler! I need say no more, we can all draw our own parallels. I will leave it there and go pour myself a glass of water from the miracle that is my kitchen tap.
Weekly Reading
Stay With Me. This book was a wild ride, and I was here for it. Set in Nigeria against the backdrop of political instability and military coups and resulting dictatorships, it is the story of a couple who have been unable to have a baby. The man’s family decides it’s time for him to have a new wife, and pressures him into a polygamous marriage. The only way for this polygamous marriage to be dissolved is for the first wife to become pregnant – which she does, in kind of a shocking twist. The shocking twist gets stranger as the book goes on. I liked this book a lot but it’s definitely a twisted story. I read a surprising number of books that are set in Nigeria, and every time, I feel grateful to be in Canada.
Any Other Family. I picked this book up on a whim and I’m glad I did. The premise is a bit complicated: a young and incredibly fertile woman has four children who she has chosen to put up for adoption, due to her youth. The four children are adopted among three sets of parents, and the birth mother is involved. It’s all like a big extended family. While the three families are on vacation, the birth mother calls to tell them that she is, once again, pregnant, and will also be giving this one up for adoption. The story is about how the three adoptive mothers cope with the news and with the newly expanding family; it is a triple POV story. Despite the confusing and somewhat unbelievable premise, I was immersed immediately and very invested in the outcome. I kind of wish we could have seen the birth mother’s POV, but maybe that could be a follow-up book. This was really well written and completely engrossing.
The spring air really does give me a feeling of hope and optimism; my little arugula seeds are sprouting, and flowers are popping up everywhere. Now, will I be devastated from opening my news app as soon as I publish this? Maybe! But at least we have washing machines. xo
Love the way you snuck in the quote from Christmas Vacation! One of my all-time favorite movies : ) I usually hold off on reading your post until later in the week-like a little treat just waiting to help me finish off the work week. So glad I decided to read it this morning. Maybe I’ll move to reading it Monday mornings to start my week of right.
And washing machines are the best!
Hi Deanna! Thank you SO much for this very sweet comment! I love that it is a treat for you. Thank you!
Christmas Vacation is also one of my favourites and I quote from it ALL the time (it’s Christmas, and we’re all in misery! Remember that metal plate in my head? Grace? She died thirty years ago – actually anything from Aunt Bethany is gold. DON’T THROW ME DOWN CLARK IS YOUR HOUSE ON FIRE CLARK IS RUSTY STILL IN THE NAVY?) Oh! I also just remembered “I don’t want to spend the holidays dead!”
Amen for modern miracles. Our ancestors had it quite hard. I am perpetually cold as it is so I would not have fared well in the less warm and cozy environments our ancestors had to put up with before things like central heating were available. A hot water bottle is not going to cut it for me in subzero temps – no sir.
I read Stay With Me years ago and also really appreciated it. And yes, reading about life in Nigeria can really make one appreciate where they live.
This has been such a bleak period, though, and I have to talk about what is going on all the time for work since it impacts markets and growth expectations. It is not fun to try to predict what our whacko president is going to do. I anxiously checked my phone last Tuesday, hoping and praying he would pull another TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out – it’s acronym financial markets use to describe Trump’s tendency to push us to the brink of disasters and then walk back those disasters). But this latest one was on a whole different level. There have been evil men in power for ages but this is the first time I’ve felt like that evil person is at the helm of the US. Sigh. It’s very depressing.
I finished “Whidbey” last night and boy is that a hard read as it’s about the survivors of sexual assault during their childhood. It was a ROUGH read and the author is a sexual assault survivor so she’s drawing from personal experience. Now I’m reading “Family of Spies” which is a memoir/non-fiction book about the author finding out that her ancestors were Nazis spies that assists in the bombing of Pearl Harbor! It is crazy to read and so so page turning so far! I highly recommend.
*makes note to not read Whidbey*
Lisa, I cannot imagine how difficult your job is these days! It would be so draining. The cynic in me wonders if SOMEONE (maybe lots of someones) is benefitting financially from all this volatility. Are they long vol? Maybe. Or from higher oil prices? I feel like people know what they are doing here.
I had never heard TACO before and I love it.
NO CENTRAL HEATING! I mean, think of all those shanties that settlers would be in, in the Dakotas for example. You’d be so cold!
It is easy to make your lifetime your frame of reference and sometimes the bigger picture is useful, especially when it’s your own country responsible for a lot of the current atrocities. Good news from Hungary, though. I’ll take that.
SUCH good news, Steph! It was a bright light for sure.
I love this, Nicole. I’m also an optimist, and it’s hard to balance what’s going on in the world now with the knowledge that yes, our ancestors had it much worse. There have always been atrocities and everything does pass. Which is not to say that what’s going on right now is okay, or that it doesn’t matter! It’a just a good thing to keep in mind.
Stay With Me sounds really good! I like a shocking twist.
Well, don’t get too excited, Jenny – the shocking twist isn’t a dagger in the back or anything like what you’re used to in your murder mysteries! But it was shocking to me (BTW I watched The Housemaid on the weekend and HOW DO PEOPLE STAND THE SUSPENSE IN PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLERS? I kept saying “ahhhhh this is too scary!”)
Yes, all these things matter but it is also to have a perspective of where we are in time. I mean, this is the best I can muster up right now!
Oh, Nicole, you strike the perfect balance between optimism and realism, with such a delightful dose of humor. I am still giggling about this: “Meanwhile, here I am, brushing my dog’s teeth.”
And modern flush toilets — YES. I don’t express enough gratitude for having such a marvel in my life.
Imagine having to go outside to use the bathroom. IN THE WINTER. Or, ew, chamber pots.
I am old enough to remember my own mother using a wringer washer early in our family life. She detested that thing–it was really hard work. And then to lug it all out to dry on clotheslines in the back yard!
Still, I think it’s necessary to remember that everything is relative. And what’s happening in the world–led by the madman in the US–should concern us all.
Even as we brush our dogs’ teeth and flush our toilets.
Nance, my husband also remembers his mom using a wringer washer! He remembers turning the crank.
You’re right, it absolutely should concern us all. I do not have great knowledge of the working of the system in the US, but when there was talk of annihilating an entire civilization…well…I did wonder where the checks and balances are, because threats of genocide are NOT GREAT. It’s very alarming.
When things seem to go wrong — things like a broken dishwasher or microwave, even my flooded basement or something like the price of gas, I try to stop and say “First World Problems.” We are so lucky to have the conveniences of what we have. My grandparents had running water during my time but I remember that they had a hand pump attached to the sink from the days before. Life was so much harder for them. (I will say when we had some septic issues at the cottage and we were using the portapotty at the public beach or the toilet at Burger King, it was not pleasant!) I love that you brush the dog’s teeth!
I try to do that too, Jeanie – we are so lucky to have our conveniences and don’t we miss them when they are on the fritz?
We are having our septic tank serviced today and I feel SO lucky that we have someone who services it!
Favorite parts:
“Meanwhile, here I am, brushing my dog’s teeth.”
“Earlier this week I wondered if we were indeed going to see a nuclear war, and at least we have toilets was not as cheering as one might think it would be.”
“I read a surprising number of books that are set in Nigeria, and every time, I feel grateful to be in Canada.”
Hahaha thanks Swistle!
Amen! We’re still having some cold weather here and there and it’s not quite gardening season yet, but the offset is that my dog doesn’t require tooth brushing.
I’ve been on the “there have always been bad things/people in the world and there always will be” for a while. I used to get so upset at things that George Bush II did for pete’s sake. It’s not that I don’t have issues with the current administration and state of the world, but they are not allowed to affect my everyday life.
Birchie, I can almost feel my soul slump over if I read too many (i.e., more than 1/2) news articles. It’s just too much.
Thank you for the section on how great-grandmothers had harder lives – that was VERY USEFUL as I am going “my cheapest fair trade chocolate increased in price by more than 40% over the weekend, panic!” It *is* daunting having read a lot of books in the late 1800s/early 1900s (public domain fiction is great) to know what not having vaccines or effective regulation or government monopoly-busting tends to lead to and feeling like you’re yelling into a void of people who simply do not understand that raw milk was banned *because people kept dying from it* and childhood vaccines were enormously popular for a century there *because adults knew at least one child who had died from the disease this new vaccine prevented* and now there is a lot of knowledge we just do not experientially have about How Bad [Thing] Is, Really. (laundry ALSO YES; even just being able to spin clothes dry has reduced the work *so absurdly much* vs. needing to wring the clothes and even *then* they are not as dry as spun-dry clothes get)(and contraception: either do not have sex or end up with more children than you can afford to feed and/or die in childbirth, contraception is REALLY GOOD esp. now that we don’t have to budget into our family size the fact that 20% of kids die before age 5, as the US mortality figures were in 1900!)
It is unnerving seeing price increases and knowing historically and economically that this is prooobably the start of something rather than the end of something BUT we have running water and flush toilets and *blogs* and washing machines, and these are all wonderful things! (and, unlike vaccines and contraceptives, no one is trying to take those away!) We have blogs and access to hundreds of years of books at our fingertips! Few kids in the US die of malnutrition [although the US is now responsible for a lot of *other* kids dying of malnutrition]! [when I call my reps I do not tend to point out the “at least we still have” things to them but focus on a “fix this” and “impeach” message]
But also yes nuclear war is hard to Look At The Positives about. BUT for the other stuff, also yes, look at how we have tetanus shots and OTC antibiotic cream! We have medications that result in people who had what were previously thought to be fatal diseases instead having normal life spans! We have fresh things other than cabbages and carrots and apples available even in the dead of winter! AND running water AND publicly maintained roads AND washing machines AND elastic for our underwear et al!
Kate, I love your comments. I LIVE FOR YOUR COMMENTS. I mean, I haven’t thought of elastic for underwear but girl, you hit it right on the money. Also think of all the feminine products we have, as opposed to what our ancestors would have done. Even reading OG Judy Blume and thinking about a belted sanitary napkin…I mean…that was in our lifetime (or mine, anyway, I don’t know how old you are). Not that I had them myself, but the books, I mean.
Your comment also reminded me of a lady I taught at seniors’ yoga. She told me that when she was a girl, frozen food was new! And it was life-changing. All the ladies said they never had salads in the winter, but frozen vegetables were such a new and exciting thing.
And on the topic of washing machines, in the west we take big washing machines for granted, along with dryers. Here, in Spain, where I am now, the washing machines are tiny (as in most of Europe), and dryers are rare. But there is something so satisfying about seeing your laundry hanging out on the balcony to dry in the sun, touching it and feeling how warm and dry it is. Having said that though, I’m not ready to give up my dryer at home. There isn’t enough sunshine there to dry clothes fast!
Especially in winter! I mean, I guess they’d just dry somewhere in your house but…I am happy to have my dryer!
I can confirm that in winter most clothes stay on the terrace and just take a very very long time to dry. Always happy to see the back of winter!
Great thoughts, Nicole! I think it’s a miracle that our ancestors even were able to have children – and that these children survived. How hardcore our great-great-etc. -grandmothers must have been! And how soft we are in comparison!
I agree with Pearl above on the dryer thought: I don’t use a dryer (rare in Europe and South Africa) and I line dry everything. It’s a wonderful feeling to take down the fresh washing from a line! And no electricity involved!
Catrina, we are SO soft in comparison! The things our grandmas had to do just to run the houses. Imagine baking bread in a woodstove, for example. Eeep!!!
Ah, Nicole, what you said is perfect for so many occasions – “There’s no point mentally rehearsing for bad things to happen; either they will happen or they won’t, I don’t need to dwell on it. Instead I will just focus on what’s in front of me.” I’m going to put that on my bulletin board!
I am grateful for running water and washing machines and flush toilets. (Your laundry room is beautiful, BTW.) I’m grateful that, as Lisa said, TACO. OMG.
I got your sweet card! ❤️
Oh YAY I’m so glad it arrived! I was super slow mailing things out (I am still mailing them, maybe I will finish my stack today!)
THANK YOU, I love my laundry room. My washer/ dryer in Calgary was in the basement, and the floor was not level, so the washer would often, um, move around during the spin cycle. My husband tried so many times to fix the situation, to no avail. So I am very grateful to have this beautiful laundry room!
Wow Nicole, I really loved reading this post. So many interesting thoughts. I remember when my husband and I were looking to set up a little self-sufficient homestead when our kids were little and thinking of doing an off-the grid(ish) lifestyle and looked at a place with an outhouse and my mother-in-law just went ballistic and gave us a huge rant about how lucky we were to never experience outhouses, hand washing dishes and laundry, bad diseases, no running water in the house, no refrigeration, etc. We ended up with our little homestead but also indoor plumbing, washer and dryer and dishwasher and now a/c even!
How nice you are able to get going in your garden already. What beautiful views! Our lilacs are just starting to get leaves – about a month earlier than usual.
It sounds like you have the best of both worlds, Dulcie – a little homestead with modern comforts! I mean, I get where your MIL is coming from. My MIL tells me that we never used to get garbage pickup on this road (she lives next door, we are on two acres, etc) back in the 60s and early 70s. No garbage pickup! I mean, I take that for granted. No running water – imagine if you got the stomach flu or something, eep!
We used to go on holiday in Romania, and a couple of places this was in a lovely little lodge. But no running water, an outhouse and no electricity for a week or 2 gave me a pretty good view of what life is without. And it’s all good and well for a bit but I’m nog giving up my washing machine. Or indoor plumbing. Or central heating. Actually, the Romans already had indoor plumbing and central heating, it’s just that the practice of it was broken for a while.
I only leaned about about TACO recently! And one can only hope… Looking forward to seeing what Hungary is going to do now!
Oh yes that’s right – the Romans were so ahead of the rest of the world in terms of those comforts!
I totally understand – it’s okay for a limited period of time, but then I just want a shower. And a toilet. And a warm house!
Yay Hungary!!!
Our shower head broke the other day, and my husband went out and got a new one, and within about 2 hours from breakage to the store to home, I was taking my shower. SO GRATEFUL.
I’m currently reading a book that I think you would enjoy, Yesteryear by Cari Claire Burke, about a trad wife influencer who (apparently, not sure yet what’s actually going on) goes back in time and has to live the life she has been promoting, and she washes the clothes in freezing cold water, and all I can think is that I thought Ma warmed the water first in the Little House books! Why the hell wouldn’t you warm the water? If this woman is from now, why wouldn’t SHE think to warm the water? Seriously, it’s a huge flaw for me in the entire storyline.
When the world seems too batshit crazy and I worry that that Jackass is going to end us all, I just decide that’s fine, since I haven’t really saved enough for retirement. Bummer that I haven’t been back to Paris yet, but oh well.
I seriously think there is some big time insider trading going on, and people are making a lot of money off of the drastic swings in the stock market. Capitalism is bullshit sometimes, right?
J, I have Yesteryear on my library holds – it might be a while though. I listen to that author on the Diabolical Lies podcast, and I like her a lot, so I am looking forward to reading it! But yes. You would warm the water. What kind of bullshit is that? They heated the water on the stove!!!
Woof, those are some dark thoughts, J! I hope that the world keeps turning.
Aww! Thanks for the shout out! It was actually my grandmother I mentioned. She was born in 1899 and died in 1977. She saw some sh*t! And my other grandmother lost her father at age 3 and had to go live in an orphanage because her mother could not afford to keep her and her 2 brothers. So yes, Princess of Wales is my lifestyle! As a person who is perpetually cold, I cannot fathom not have central heating. I’m convinced I would not have survived if born before 1950. LOL!
Also, I like to remind all of my children that they were born in the 1900’s too whenever they talk about Boomers. Love these stream of consciousness posts, Nicole!
Wow, she did see some shit! Goodness, those are tough lives. I don’t know what your grandmas were like, but my Grandma Fern was so strong and optimistic! And my great-grandma was just the most positive, fun-loving lady in her later (widowed) years. The spirits they had, those grandmas of ours!
Central heating, it’s such a gift!
Whenever I watch a historical drama, I always think about how bad everything and everyone would smell. I have a very well-developed sense of smell, and nope, would not want to live back then … and then, as you mentioned, all the hard work required just to have the basic necessities done. I’ll keep living my cushy 21st-century life, thank you very much.
I think the evil clowns value human lives only slightly more than mosquitoes because humans can sometimes be of use to them, whereas mosquitoes are not. I’m sure it’s not about a view of intrinsic worthiness.
I am with you on focusing on what is in front of me. I keep myself updated on the major headlines by reading the newspaper for about 15 minutes each day, and mostly limit myself to that.
MELISSA ME TOO!!! I always think about how people would have smelled. Would we all just become nose-blind to the smells because everyone smelled? I literally think about this several times a week. I remember having a conversation with my dad about soldiers and if they wore deodorant (I was specifically referencing the Vietnam War, but any war really) and my dad said “of course not, what would be the point?” And I…think about that more than one might think I would. I used to always think that about Little House on the Prairie – the once a week bath, the water of which was shared with the whole family. EWWWWWWWW. The BO would be bad enough, but all the other smells…well, let’s just be happy that’s not our reality!
Hi Nicole! Great post, important topics. I was thinking yesterday that I feel as though the world has surpassed me. I really don’t understand how things work anymore. I guess everyone feels this way at some point in their life but I thought it would happen later.
On a brighter note, I finished Inhale, Exhale over the weekend. I loved it, the world it built was so fully realised and detailed. I felt like I knew Michelle and Livvy and it was more like visiting than reading. It was the perfect way to escape this world for a bit. Can’t wait to read your next!
Oh yay, I’m so glad you liked it! Thank you so much for reading and for letting me know!
Some things have definitely surpassed me. I am constantly befuddled by the remote control, of all things. I don’t watch TV much, so it’s a struggle when I do to figure out how it works!
modern miracles are overall good, we just need to be careful not to overataken by them and stop living when we are deprived. all household chores are a drag for me thus I pay someone to do it, but i make sure my girls how to do all of them in case life changes again.
the world is full of bad news in aggregate but when I pay close attention to the small world around me, there are more beauty and kindness than it appears. I try to play attention to those little things that are more tangible than the big aweful news.
I don’t mind household chores, but that’s probably because I have a) the time, and b) running water. Lol! I think about it all the time! I would not want to go back to the days where we didn’t have running water and electricity, although I do think it’s good to be able to hand-wash things.
I agree with you – the small worlds around us are so full of beauty.
Optimism isn’t a terrible thing. Honestly, I don’t do much of the news because it can be so depressing and although keeping my head in the sand isn’t always best, there isn’t much I can do in the grand scheme of things…aside from brushing my dog’s teeth, and tending to the circle of family, friends, and neighbors that I can actually impact.
I often stand in the shower, letting the clean, warm water cascade over my skin and I give a moment of appreciation for just that. There are many places on the planet where that is the purest luxury a person could want for.
No, I can’t imagine doing all the hospital laundry by hand…that must have been back-breaking drudgery. But, she did what she had to do to survive. I’m sure she’s smiling down at her Grand-daughter-in-law, the Princess of Wales with a proud smile.
You are right, of course – the best we can do is to tend to our circles in which we have impact. Also brushing the dog’s teeth! I knew you would understand.
Showers are pure luxury and I never forget that!
I remember listening to Stay With Me on Audio, and there were a couple times where I had to go back and re-listen because I was sure I had missed some major plot detail…. but no… that’s just the story.
Laundry is great. I actually hang all my laundry to dry rather than put in the the dryer, and doesn’t it say something that I feel like hanging things to dry feels like a bougie/luxurious thing to do? “La la! I’m so European!!!” It’s the same with cloth diapers, which I also used. Totally a bougie, crunchy granola thing. People in dire straits are not using cloth diapers, I don’t think?
It is definitely bougie to be able to do that, Diane! I get it. I’m sure people in dire straits don’t have time to line dry their laundry or do cloth diapers – I could be wrong though.
The story is WILD. I was like…okay…but…didn’t they…they didn’t? I really liked it though.
Brushing your dog’s teeth haha. Yes, so grateful to be living now, not 1 or 2 generations ago. One of my grandmothers lost her husband, a teenager & an infant to the influenza epidemic. She was left very poor with 9 children & a farm (and no indoor plumbing!). My maternal grandmother lost 2 very young children; as Italians (in the early 1900’s) you needed to name children after their ancestors in specific order. This was the second daughter and she needed to be called Rose. So having had two girls names Rose die my grandmother thought the name was cursed but her husband insisted the next girl be called Rose or scandal in the family. Happily she grew up to be my.most wonderful favourite aunt Rose.
Oh my goodness, the things those women went through. Child mortality was such a common thing, and how terribly sad. I would have also been wary of using the name Rose – but I’m happy you have such a beloved aunt!
Amen sister. Every time I do a backpacking trip, or travel to a emerging country, I am reminded that we have it good. And I never forget the magic of hot water and flush toilets. I can do hand laundry, but I don’t want to have to heat up water pail by pail to take a bath. The girls came to visit and they were astounded by the place we rented. I think in their mind it would be dirty and hot (it was not) and have no AC or flush toilets (it did). In their mind, Thailand is a third world country and they expected to have to rough it. So I think they were pleasantly surprised.
Oh gosh, I think I stayed in some of the nicest places in my life when I was in Asia! Cambodia in particular seemed very luxe to me.
Ugh, imagine heating up the water pail by pail – what an ordeal!
I swear, being off Instagram has been so good for my mental health because I only look at news headlines when I open up my political substack newsletters or listen to a political podcast. Otherwise, I am not thinking about it. Which is a privilege, for sure, but I just can’t get sucked down into the abyss. I’ve thought about going back on Instagram and really setting up my algorithm to only show me cute kitty videos, but it feels like it can get out of hand SO QUICKLY and I am SO BAD about reading comments, ugh.
I often think about how amazing it is that I get to be a woman who lives ALONE and controls all of her finances herself. I didn’t have to get married young so I would have someone taking care of me. I could go to college and get a job and live on my own and do my own thing. Even just 50 years ago, this wasn’t a possibility!
YES Stephany, I mean, when I was born women couldn’t get credit cards without their husbands signing for it. Isn’t that crazy?
I NEVER read the comments! Unless they are on my post, or if it’s something like a cute drawing of Michelle’s!
We have so much to be thankful for in this modern age. I might have quietly died from colon cancer if not for the fact it was detected early enough for surgery to be effective. But I’m also of an age (old enough) to remember, as a kid, how much of a struggle it was for even my parents, especially my mother bringing up 6 kids in the 50s & 60s. And yet, despite all the hardships (which were not obvious to us) all my memories of childhood are mostly happy ones.
I think kids just know what they know and don’t realize things are hardships at all – because they have no point of reference!
Modern medicine! So grateful for that and so grateful your cancer was caught early. xo
This was a great subject for a post. I’m serious when I write this, but sometimes I’ll find an episode of Little House on the Prairie just to imagine what it was like to live as early pioneers. Crazy how they all survived. Imagine cooking over a literal fire…
I know! Baking bread in a woodstove! It would have been so difficult.
Just before you also said it I thought “I read a surprising number of books set in Nigeria”. Probably not statistically relevant, but still, hmmm.
Yeah, people who romanticize ‘the good old days’ often gloss right over the number of people for whom older days were much, much worse. And working as a laundress in a hospital? My hands shrivel into claws just thinking about it.
Yes, R said the other day to his buddy who was talking about the good old days, that the “good old days” were great for white guys, but not anyone else. It’s like romanticizing plantation life, for example.
I know, I think my nails all just broke off thinking of the laundry.
The fact that we have crockpots is proof positive that we’re better off than our great-grandmothers. Coming home to a hot meal after being away from the house for 10+ hours is nothing short of a freakin’ miracle. Don’t even get me started on air fryers!
Air fryers! I love mine. It was a dark horse, when it comes to small kitchen appliances. I didn’t think I’d use it at all, and here I am, using it three times a week!
I hear you. I was always a crockpot guy until recently. Even the George Foreman Grill got more of a workout than the air fryer, but lately, the tides are turning.
The George Foreman Grill! My favourite episode of the office is the one with the George Foreman Grill.
