Plans and Dinner: Cleaning Other People

Last minute plans are coming together swimmingly. Our riding jerseys and casual t-shirts arrived today. They all fit much better than we had initially expected--Huntington University did a nice job on the designs, too. Morgan picked up a GPS device, Matt got a new phone and figured out how to fix the Flip video camera, and Andy put the finishing touches on the bikes and finished a number of thank you notes. The Friedlund family is busy preparing the house (recently wrecked by the return of Matt and Andy from college) for a dinner with the Jones family. It should prove meaningful for both families.

And why do we clean the house, anyway? We both used to wonder that as children when others were coming over. In fact, having company over was not a popular pass-time--especially if the company was not specifically for the entertainment of the children--because we had to clean. As young children we weren't going to be interested in what the adults were talking about. It was often quite boring. They often talked over our heads, or censored themselves in case what they were talking about would be inappropriate for a child to hear--that may have been the most frustrating part. And when we did understand what was going on, like I said, it was boring. But the adults enjoyed themselves.

In general, the average person's company prefers to be in a clean and comfortable environment. And so it's a pretty standard middle class gesture to clean the house before guests arrive at the house. It sends the message that their presence is preferred, even valued.

And then we get to the actual relating to each other. This is never as easy as putting things on the shelves or mopping up the yellow stains on the floor around the toilet. The people coming over have all sorts of ideas about life, even how the house should look. And so one must wonder: How does one go about tidying up ideologically in order to present themselves in a manner that welcomes others? And how does that effect what our physical spaces look like?

Probably it has a lot to do with whether we actually value the person or people in general, and to get to a point where we genuinely value others seems to be quite a journey.

Maybe presenting ourselves as caring will help us understand the positive side of caring about people. Presenting ourselves is easy, as its just an appearance. And it's safe, as it doesn't have to reveal what's really there. We all do it to some extent. (It should probably be mentioned that a life only filled with presentation may be a tad empty). It might not be a bad idea if you're among those who follow the philosophy that you need to start acting in order to understand the good that comes from acting in such a manner. Or, perhaps just continue as you were. When I get bored with new ideas, or too frustrated with the people around me that's what I do ;)