Tuesday, July 06, 2004
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Jai Guru Deva Om
Day two of the massive unemployment obligation clean-up. It still absolutely boggles me that such a small apartment with only two people and two cats in it can get so devastated within a week of neglect. I managed to assemble three
Extra Strong Glad Garbage Bags full of stuff that had to be thrown out, three sinkfuls of dishes with random stuff growing on various surfaces and I still haven't dealt with the laundry (clean, but not yet put away). That was yesterday.
Before I start today's clean up (probably one more trash bag, one more sinkful and laundry) I would like to take this time to ponder some karmic questions. Some of you might consider this a way for me to procrastinate (because I didn't mention earlier that I also am responsible for cleaning out the coat closet) but I would like to initiate some discussion of the issues that were plaguing me while I was going about making this place habitable yesterday.
Consider the rule: Harm none. It's the basis of
Wicca and if you think about it, the principle of Karma as well. So, while I'm washing off inch thick layers of mould with
Dawn Apple Blossom Dishwashing Detergent Anti-Bacterial Hand Soap with Lift Action (more on this later) and spraying
Neutra Air Citrus Breeze by Lysol into the air to kill odour causing bacteria, well then I would think that I am in violation of that rule. On the flip side, however. If I were not to harm these organisms (and this is a very pertinent issue because in a few moments I plan to evict the fruit flies that have taken up residence in my kitchen with a considerable amount of force) then this environment would be harmful to the inhabitants of this one-bedroom. Of course the answer to this is to not cultivate organisms that I would have to later eliminate, but that means good housekeeping: a skill that it still in development, as far as I'm concerned.
Before I continue, I have to talk about Dawn Dish-Soap with the patented Lift-Action. I had dishes with dried on food like you wouldn't imagine. Take, for example, the pyrex dish which used to have a roast in it. As the roast diminished, we left the dish, gravy and onions and all in the back of the fridge. It was probably there for about a month and it wasn't so much that there was gravy left than there was a hard crust that had formed on the glass. Another example could be the pot that was used to make a big batch of
ground beef and Campbell's Tomato Soup and was sitting on the stove for a week. I used undiluted condensed soup for that, so the stuff was dried on like you wouldn't believe. A few squirts of Dawn (quantity-wise, you only need to use a fraction of what you would need with normal dish-soap) and a quick soak in warm-hot water later, I didn't even have to scrub the pyrex. I took it out of the sink, gave it a quick rinse and it was done. As for the pot? Well, I peeled off the stuck on tomato, quick rinse, done. I think that this new Dawn is going to put those pot scrubber manufacturers out of business. (Not to mention for REALLY tough stuck on stuff you can use the
Dawn Power Brush so you don't really have to get your hands dirty at all) I don't often endorse a product, and I hate washing dishes. So you get a good idea of how great this stuff is.
I digress. So here I am eviscerating entire colonies of lifeforms. Today I'm going to (hopefully!) vacuum, put laundry away, wash all the glasses (most of which have a slice of decaying lime in them because we drink alot of G&Ts) and organize the coat closet (which if I'm not wrong has a two-month old tupperware with mayonaise in it). How many micro-organisms are going to be affected or even harmed by my actions? What would my resultant karma be? I recall thinking once that anything harmed by me was poised to be harmed because of actions that it had committed in past lives. In other words, my actions are helping enforce karma. I mean you have to have done something pretty awful to be reincarnated as bacteria that forms on old mayonaise. Or even the green mossy stuff that grows on old tomatoes. The problem with that line of thought is that it really leaves me no excuses and that I should hop to it to help fufil karmic destiny.
No excuses I guess. I just have to hop to it.
posted by Joie! at
11:36 a.m.
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