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| Maundy Thursday adventures with bread goods |
Easter Sunday was three days ago, so I’m
slightly overdue with an update on my Lenten resolution to give up indolence and indulgence
of the metaphysical variety, a.k.a. wallowing in self-pity.
It's spring now and that certainly
helps. More on the weather in another post and I still stand by my preference
for colder climes, but things feel more possible in the spring, especially
after more than three months of pretty much subzero temperatures.
So, in the spirit of getting things done, here
are five points from “Erin’s Getting Things Done List” devised and enacted over
the last six weeks for the hope of development and redefinition in the months
to come.
1) Join a choir.
I am now a part-time member of the
professional St James Cathedral Choir in downtown Toronto. Got off my
proverbial, auditioned, got in, and have already sung a couple of services.
It’s very hard to explain to non-singers,
even singers who don’t really get cathedral singing, but it really is succour
for my soul. I’m no longer apologetic about it: I love the music first,
the ritual and tradition second, then the specific and often quite scandalous
social camaraderie of a cathedral choir, and placed within the urban and
theologically liberal context of an inner city cathedral, I admire
the social application of intelligent and inclusive Christianity.
Even with my very developed and complicated unbelief.
Related to all this, we’re getting a piano
in June. SCORE!
2) Bake bread (with an eye on more adventurous
pastry)
You may have heard tell of my dislike of
cooking dinner. It’s true, dinner can be someone else’s responsibility. But I
do enjoy baking, and more specifically, I do enjoy eating bread. Logic would
therefore suggest I should bake bread, which I was first taught to do at the
kitchen bench of a very dear family friend who looked after me a lot when I was
four - the smell of yeast still transports me back to Bristol accents, Portmeirion china, and that wonderful feeling of befriending a grown-up who
talks to you like a rational human being, not a small child.
Anyway, I can bake and Betty Friedan
may not have approved, but I shall attempt to make bread more regularly, so long as it’s never
a chore and an obligation. I mention Friedan because I do think it absurd that
a highly educated woman like myself should be forced by circumstance into
predominantly stay-at-home motherhood, and I do agree that slaving over bread-making
is ridiculous when you can outsource such an activity. Indeed, Friedan’s 1960s
despair over the options facing mothers is very resonant with my own woes this
last year, but I like baking and baking bread is a delightful indulgence, so long as it's a choice. It also allows me to punch dough. Additionally, I outsource cooking
dinner to my husband. Betty would approve. (If you don’t understand what I’m on
about, then read The Feminine Mystique for
goodness sake.)
3) Get
out of the house and do something.
I’ve been volunteering at school since the
Autumn, braving the elements come rain, snow and -40 windchill every Monday
morning to help with the school drop-off. I’ve also assisted occasionally with my daughter’s
class reading programme. Getting outside, no matter the weather has been great;
and reading with five and six-year-olds has been fun.
However, these are not especially
fulfilling in the longterm, so I’m getting involved at the Oakville Museum (19th-century
colonial stuff, pretty lakeside setting, what’s not to like!). It’ll be on a
volunteer basis to start with, but if you want to get into museum services
(or literary events, or publishing, or pretty much every field I’m qualified
for) you have to volunteer first. We’ll see what happens.
4) Embrace the 17 months I have until my
son starts school while thinking creatively about my career prospects.
I thought I’d have a job by now, and even
though there is still potential for some teaching in the 2014-2015 academic
year and I’m not giving up looking for further opportunities, I’m trying not to
worry about it so much. September 2015 will come around soon enough and the
endless childcare concerns will reduce significantly. I might as well enjoy
this time the best I can.
I’m still doing some research: I have an
academic article coming out soon; I’m presenting a paper at a conference next
month; I’m involved in some research groups; but I’m trying to remove that sense
of pressing and frankly rather depressing obligation in a dismal academic job
market. I’m not being single minded about the opportunities I have.
More
specifically, we’ve reduced daycare down to two days a week to save some money,
and I’m learning HTML and CSS to be of practical use to the “family business”. I like
patterns and it’s quite fun.
I’m also going to do more weekday
activities with the kids.
Ironically, my son is watching TV while I
write this.
5) Go on more daytrips.
We’re moving house soon, so our access to
shops, cafes, and the train station (i.e. easy access to downtown Toronto) will
be vastly improved, which is great, but the shocking thing about a major
international move has been all the unexpected costs. Holidays just seem out of
the question right now, but we have a car and great provincial parks nearby. There is also an impressively regular train into Toronto with all that city has
to offer. No excuses, we shall do things.
Unless we feel like being lazy, and then we
shan’t.
