Watching the laundry and getting serious

            Laundry always interests me.  It’s such a mundane task, but you just have to do it one time or another, and people have had to do it for ages.  I really like to watch it spin.  As much as I love that, though, I always think about the people who had to do it when it was really hard work.  I hate laundry because it’s incredibly boring, but what about the time before that when it wasn’t just a boring chore mostly involving sitting and watching laundry spin. 

            For example, what about when laundry was actually physical exercise? 

            A long time ago (and still, I suppose, in undeveloped countries) people literally had to squeeze the laundry, rub the laundry on a washboard, go forth and carry it to the dry line and dry it.  Yick! 

            I wonder even more about people who don’t do laundry or don’t have the means.  For example, what about the poor people in Somalia?  Clearly, they have more important things to think about than laundry, like eating and wars and keeping cool.  I remember one time I bought a new shirt because I was just too busy to wash that night, but they clearly can’t do that.

            Now I’m getting all philosophical, which wasn’t intended, but I’m just going to go with it.

            I mean, what are basic needs, really?  Is laundry one of them?  I know Tide had a campaign for victims of natural disasters having laundry services offered with coffee and stuffed animals, but the people to whom they gave those were used to having those kinds of amenities.  I wonder what people would think about such luxuries in Somalia.  More about basic needs tomorrow; I’m back to watching the laundry spin.

Now, dear readers, go and give the Horn of Africa some relief at www.freerice.com!