February's read for me was Ida Elizabeth. I did not know if I was going to stick with it, much less enjoy it a great deal. I should have remembered that Undset pulls you along slowly, slowly dropping little nuggets to chew on. Then she finally ties up big ideas at the end. This was the case and I am glad for having persevered.
One such nugget came about when Ida was considering a friend's extreme frustration with what she considered repetitive drudge work. "The very fact that (it)was waiting to be done over again, as soon as she had finished a job of work." Her friend, "complained until she positively shrieked that housework was so monotonous: no sooner had she prepared a meal than it was eaten up, and then it was time to think of another, and when one had washed up and put things away, one knew that in a couple of hours' time one would have to take them out again."
Of course the same is true of the laundry, weeding the garden, making the beds, dusting the mantle, cleaning out the car/purse/bathroom. As soon as you complete these tasks disorder sets back in. There are few once-and-done tasks and this is true in the workplace as well. Ida reflects on this and comes to this conclusion.
“One might also look at it this way:
...that it was the good and happy moments when one had finished one’s work that recurred -
when she had finished the morning's work and put the rooms in order,
when for instance she had gotten the stove to burn nicely with the window still open so that she felt the fresh draught of air through the room,
or when supper was laid in the kitchen on a Saturday evening with something out of the ordinary and she could call the boys in
packing up a dress with tissue paper and pins ready to send,
or simply putting away a pair of shoes that she had polished and washing her fingers afterwards.”
The work returns. So does the satisfaction of work done well.
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