Tuesday, December 16, 2008

On Washing the Dishes

The number one chore of mine in our home is washing the dishes and other utensils. And there is one particular thing about this chore… I get a feeling of particular annoyance and irritation when I have to do it. I do not want to say that I hate the work. Yeah, I am lazy. But I don’t mind working at all. But I have this annoyance when I do the chore of washing the dishes. It’s almost the same kind of irritation when my mother nags, or my sister torments me, or someone who has no right or authority raises his voice at me, or when, while I am frying, the oil “pops” – the explosive kind – and hits me a lot.
The only two emotions I don’t mind showing (of course, I have to show some emotion… I’ll suffer if I don’t, and I’m human) are amusement and annoyance. But, of course, to get the job done, I have to get rid of the annoyance of washing the dishes. And I have two things that help to get rid of it. First, I procrastinate. It adds up when I have to be told to “wash the dishes now.” Washing the dishes is my responsibility, and I will do it… but not “now.” I want to wash it on a better mood… usually at a “later time.” If I do it later, in my own timing without getting told to “do it now”, the annoyance lessens or disappears. The second, I listen to my mp4 player while doing the dishes. Yup, it helps a lot. That is why you would find me often having a headset on while on this chore.
I try to interpret this phenomenon. Maybe I feel downgraded when I wash the dishes, unconsciously, even if I believe that good work is noble. Or I associate something, someone, or an early annoying experience. Or, since I do not show much cathartic emotions, it’s one of my outputs to get rid of the build-up of emotional tensions. I am not sure. I am not a shrink. Even if I psychoanalyze myself in an amateur way, it is not very effective.
Self-psychoanalysis is impossible. I think Sigmund Freud said that (if I’m wrong, correct me. Whoever said it, he’s surely a shrink). It should be done by an outside or second party mostly (and the fact that the one doing the interpreting knows what he is doing and is not himself prejudiced) to interpret one’s behavior effectively. This thing with the washing the dishes is just one of the many things I would like these shrinks to analyze. Maybe what will they say would make sense. Or maybe not. Someone like Freud would just say some sexual interpretations or origins about it (Freud almost always, if not all the time, did. Are humans only motivated by something sexual?)
But I wonder how the shrinks would interpret it. How about your interpretation, dear readers? Is there a deep philosophical meaning in it? An emotional scar? A past trauma? Or am I just very lazy?
As long as I don’t find the answer, I am doomed to wash the dishes and continue to get annoyed.

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