Washing Up

I like washing up.

Martin has just been on a 28 day cruise to the West Indies. He and his wife have already planned their next big holiday… Some folk live for their holidays; the bits between them are just time fillers. I enjoy appreciating the ordinary, the everyday, the usually unnoticed.

…Washing up’s a wholesome, good, ordinary regular event.

Dishwasher advertisements tell us that washing the dishes is a tiresome, undesirable chore… Dishwashers relieve you of the unnecessary effort, so that you can do other things that you enjoy. I would promote the allegedly undesirable as pleasant, bringing joy, peace, patience…

…Washing up’s a pastime to be enjoyed.

In a commercial kitchen the chef is chief; pot washing is the job for the lowliest of the low, for the unskilled, unambitious, unimportant. This principle is often brought into the home; dishwashing is a lesser job – for the servant or the maid. I’d challenge that assumption, but if that is the perception…

…Washing up’s good for my humility

Walking along the sea-front here in Lowestoft… McDonalds packaging, KFC disposable buckets spilling out of the waste bins… plastic drinks containers, take-away boxes… Throwing away cups, plates and cutlery may be convenient…

…Washing up’s a basic form of responsible recycling.

Adverts for washing up liquid show piles of dirty dishes transformed; they become clean, sparkling and ready for use again. I take pleasure from enabling the process and seeing the results, the dirty and unpleasant becoming clean and useful.

…Washing up’s an act of transformation

From ‘washing up’ we could …describe various religious washing procedures… discuss ‘cleanliness is next to godliness’ and its origins …point to the symbolism of Christian baptism …look at Bible narratives of washing (Naaman, Jesus, Pilate…) …explain ‘washed in the blood of the lamb’ …muse on ‘A dog returns to its vomit and a sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.’ (2 Peter 2:22)

The truth is… I just like washing up.