Within the first few years of marriage, my husband calmly looked at me and said without any condemnation, "I think if caves had electricity, you'd be happy living in one, far away from people." or something to that effect.
And there have been many days I've met him at the door or called him at work and semi-jokingly asked "Do you have my cave ready?"
It doesn't mean that my day has been bad, or that I'm upset with anyone.
It simply means some days I find humanity overwhelming.
As in I stay off Facebook because I'm tired of all the comments trivializing the important and maximizing the trivial.
As in I long to hear/read international news and all we hear in American media is a rehashing of the same old problems that we've yet to solve.
As in I hear a lecture with a group of people, and I'm the only one who didn't find it awesome.
As in I feel out of sorts in my world, as if I'm the square peg for a board that only has round holes.
But those feelings don't enable me to clean up the kitchen, or finish another load of laundry, or give me a burst of energy to deal with my crazy dog. And as much as I love rainy days, I don't think my joints would care for living in a damp cave.
So I'm offering up a prayer of thanks for our airy, spacious house, and am very thankful that today I'm not a Chinese woman living with my husband, small child, and elderly in-laws in a one bedroom 900 sq. foot apartment. Their bathrooms are "squat pots" (rubber skids on either side of the floor over a horizontal urinal...you squat over it and pull a string -think old time light fixture strings - to make it flush), so there's no such thing as escaping to the bathroom for privacy.
Yes, there are much worse things than a hermit not having a cave.
And there have been many days I've met him at the door or called him at work and semi-jokingly asked "Do you have my cave ready?"
It doesn't mean that my day has been bad, or that I'm upset with anyone.
It simply means some days I find humanity overwhelming.
As in I stay off Facebook because I'm tired of all the comments trivializing the important and maximizing the trivial.
As in I long to hear/read international news and all we hear in American media is a rehashing of the same old problems that we've yet to solve.
As in I hear a lecture with a group of people, and I'm the only one who didn't find it awesome.
As in I feel out of sorts in my world, as if I'm the square peg for a board that only has round holes.
But those feelings don't enable me to clean up the kitchen, or finish another load of laundry, or give me a burst of energy to deal with my crazy dog. And as much as I love rainy days, I don't think my joints would care for living in a damp cave.
So I'm offering up a prayer of thanks for our airy, spacious house, and am very thankful that today I'm not a Chinese woman living with my husband, small child, and elderly in-laws in a one bedroom 900 sq. foot apartment. Their bathrooms are "squat pots" (rubber skids on either side of the floor over a horizontal urinal...you squat over it and pull a string -think old time light fixture strings - to make it flush), so there's no such thing as escaping to the bathroom for privacy.
Yes, there are much worse things than a hermit not having a cave.
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