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What a strange thing: earlier, that is, in the difficult Soviet years, there were so many everyday problems, but we thought about everyday life and allowed it to “jam” us much less than today, in an era of abundance.
In an article with the cumbersome title “On the Attitudes of Public Conscience Generated by the Slave Condition” I read almost in the first lines: “… a decrease in interest in everyday circumstances.” The line hit the mark and terribly hurt – after all, this applies to my entire generation. So that’s where it’s from! This means that slavery has not been eliminated in us either.
I had to figure it out.
Previously, one could often hear a complaint: life is jamming. Life was, however, difficult. I still remember a time without hot water and with public laundries, no refrigerator, no bathroom. A friend told me that everyday life is inert chaos, which must be resisted every moment, otherwise it will bend you and strangle you.
But this was already said in modern times. And before, with all the inconveniences, for the most part, they treated everyday life lightly, trying, as it were, not to notice it. He wasn’t in charge. Poems, movies, concerts, dances, love stories, friendship – yes. And unwashed dishes – we’ll figure it out tomorrow or wash them with songs. Going to the bath is an adventure in some way. To the store too, because you can get it, or you can fly by. Then you need to go to another, to the third.
Read more:
- Things that “remember” our lives
At the same time, life was not overgrown. Regularly wiped tables, shelves, photos. The tablecloth is clean, the bed is made. On the back of the sofa fashionable then macrame. In public corridors, the floors were wiped with brooms to a shine, according to the duty schedule. The windows were washed every spring, usually around Easter, and also with songs. I liked this inner freedom, my head was occupied with lofty and cheerful things. Life supported, but did not obey him. They saved up, of course, for a sideboard or for a “wall”, but the philistines, who were exhausted in the search for and production of a fashionable headset, were treated with disgust. Because that’s not what’s important. How many films and performances on this topic were there then! In the course was the word “thingism”.
God forbid me to idealize that time, but even now I think that life is not the main thing. And it’s strange, with modern household appliances, life does not require the same efforts from us, and it takes up more space in the head. However, not everyone. Probably people, both at the time of my youth and now, relate to him differently.
Read more:
- Why do we need (domestic) problems?
In houses where life is built on a ruler and with a compass, I feel uncomfortable. The ceremonial style in them was created to the detriment of man. There is no cozy corner, slight slovenliness, which would confirm that they live here, and not guests, a lovingly arranged square. The huge spaces of the ice rink, the apartment is visible through and through. The paintings hung on the walls are reminiscent of the temporary nature of the gallery. In the large hall, the hosts sit down to watch a large TV, like lonely spectators in the hall, who were seated in the ninth row. In such an apartment, you only think about not making a careless movement.
But in the apartment of my friends on the floor there are architectural structures from books. You can’t fit everything on the shelves. But the owner in a conversation easily takes out the necessary book from the multi-storey pyramid – not pure chaos, a kind of order. In the kitchen, old clocks with weights, still from the parent’s apartment, beat off time, although others have long had battery-powered clocks. Not out of love for antiquity, I think, but out of everyday unpretentiousness. Here I feel good and simple.
In general, the arrangement of everyday life is a very delicate and purely individual matter. There is nothing to argue about here. But there are things in common.
An undoubted blessing: today people in cities are not as cramped as they were several decades ago. We learned to live in cramped conditions, of course, but we suffered in secret. There was not enough space for shelter and loneliness. Your space. Today, in most families, it is and seems to be a completely natural thing. How natural that a visitor does not stay at the apartment of friends, but at a hotel. Still, a stranger violates the routine of life, and he understands this. And yes, he is more comfortable.
Read more:
- What our home says about us
Previously, a stranger in the house was a common occurrence. Some friends and relatives stayed for a long time, for weeks or even months. There were different circumstances. Now we cherish the sovereign way of our lives. And it is right. But sometimes I think, doesn’t this wash out of us cordiality, openness, responsiveness? The desire to shelter, to respond to someone else’s misfortune? Delicately make room, not giving the guest the opportunity to doubt our location?
These are not statements, but questions. After all, what used to be an almost instinctive gesture and rule now needs an additional effort, which seems almost a sacrifice. New circumstances were to change us. Or is it only for our nature, and household, and therefore, psychological comfort is not the first and main value for us? And in any case – what does slavery have to do with it?