Will Work for Food

Ralph Waldo Emerson's home

An article in today's edition of The New York Times caught my eye.

New caretakers were needed for Ralph Waldo Emerson's house--located in Concord, Massachusetts. Apparently, the couple that fit the bill were a pair of 27-year-olds, one of whom has "a deep tan and residual ski hair" while the other "thinks of the clothes dryer as a satellite closet."

Nice.

The article intrigued me, and while I chuckled over the fact that these new caretakers had to ask around to figure out who Ralph Waldo Emerson was before accepting the job, I marveled at this quote:

“With women’s lib, the whole domain of domestic work has been relegated to the back of women’s minds," [Bay Emerson] Bancroft said. “How do you clean a house well? It’s a mundane task, but there’s a total art to it.”

And I puzzled over the anomaly that--on one hand--America prizes the homes of the deceased while overlooking the homes of the living. What an honor to clean the home of a long-dead writer ... what a meaningless job to care for the home of husband and children.

Really?

There is an art to home management, make no mistake. But better to enjoy it while alive.