Growing up as a child and young adult in South Africa, the sight of women carrying huge loads is very common. You see women carrying water and firewood on their heads and babies on their backs. Poverty means that your choices are very limited and your own labour has relatively low currency. To a typical African women, we must seem extraordinarily pampered here in North America.I don't think I have ever seriously reflected about what it must be like to do hard physical labour every single day....to haul things, to fetch , to drag and to push. What must it be like to have no relief ? I am very fortunate that I have the means to hire someone to share the burden of my various chores.
This summer I have done more than usual physical labour and I'm ashamed to admit that my relatively measly amount of work is wearing me out . I get quite demoralized with the sight of moving boxes and frustrated with myself that I can't just leap into action and drill a hole, fix a broken light switch and shove heavy objects out of the way. The truth is that I feel quite helpless.....an uneasy state of mind for my kind of personality.
Mum and I are both very similar. For her, to sit back and watch others work is not something she is comfortable with. She gets frustrated relying on people and I know would rather just get the job done .She hates waiting around with half finished projects. I try to console her ..."C'est la Vie ", "Let it flow" ....all useless platitudes as we both know that the slightest hint that our independence is compromised is an utter anathema and something to be avoided at all cost.
Carpe Diem is our mutual philosophy ...or...get bums in gear....NOW !
