Newsflash – doing stuff takes effort…

Spider and messy web.

I have a confession to make – I don’t like doing things that I find difficult.

Recently I took a bed apart and moved it to another room. This may seem like a fairly paltry achievement to most of the world – and indeed it is – but ordinarily I keep these annoying, awkward and screwdriver wielding jobs for my long suffering husband.

He never complains. He never says things like, “Am, for a feminist you aren’t that forthcoming when it involves messy/exerting/difficult jobs, are you?” My logic (excuse) is that I had the babies and that that means I am in credit in the messy/exerting/difficult department.  This is quite robust logic as he doesn’t (usually) suffer too much pain of the being-torn-limb-from-limb-by-a-giant variety while moving furniture, cutting grass or fixing stuff.

So, I tell myself I do plenty of other things and that I don’t need to do (more) stuff that’s hard for me.

But it’s not true.

I do.

We all do.

There is so much unnecessary suffering in the world that things really need to change.

The likelihood is that we all need to do the messy/exerting/difficult jobs – whatever they happen to be for us as individuals – if that is to happen.

As always, nobody says it better than Anon –

Love conquers all, but if love doesn’t do it, try hard work.

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14 Comments

  1. Wonderful!
    I share your belief that as the ones who give birth we are way ahead in the achievement department!. And, alas, I share your aversion to work that is too physically taxing. I’ll shovel the steps, but hubby gets the deck and the walk. I’ll bring in an armload of wood; he brings in a week’s worth.
    But you and anon are both right; there is a lot to do and most of what is worth doing is going to be hard and messy and taxing! Thanks for the laugh and the nudge!

  2. Oh, I loved this! This line made me laugh out loud: “This is quite robust logic as he doesn’t (usually) suffer too much pain of the being-torn-limb-from-limb-by-a-giant”… and your last line is just great:

    Love conquers all, but if love doesn’t do it, try hard work.

    🙂 Thank you for this beautiful post today.

  3. I know I’ve found that when I do the things I don’t want to do, I feel a silly amount of pride that I did it. And it takes the pressure off my spouse, which can only be a good thing.

  4. I know I’ve found that when I do the things I don’t want to do, I feel a silly amount of pride that I did it. And it takes the pressure off my spouse, which can only be a good thing.

    1. I don’t think it’s silly pride, to be honest. I think doing stuff we don’t want to do (whatever it is) takes sacrifice and effort and we deserve to be proud of that even if the task itself is simple.

  5. Some people are better suited to physical labor and HATE sitting at a desk.

    I am better suited to sitting at a desk engaged in mental labors . . . while others do the heavy lifting. 😉

  6. Some people are better suited to physical labor and HATE sitting at a desk.

    I am better suited to sitting at a desk engaged in mental labors . . . while others do the heavy lifting. 😉

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