Prolonging our lives with...housework?

JAKARTA (JP): On many occasions when I look at our grandparents and parents I cannot help see the freshness and vitality they seem to possess which seems to totally evade today's youth. Without that "perk-me-up cuppa coffee," the day stretching ahead seems a revolting insurmountable dragon.

In an era when stress levels in people are causing an alarming number of cases of heart disease, strokes and all kinds of gastro-related ailments, it has become imperative to delve into our lifestyles and find out why. In Indonesia, along with high- tech globalization and excruciatingly stressful traffic jams, it is time we looked over our shoulders to see how far we have come and also if it is sensible to retrace our steps in some way.

What is making the young huff and puff at the end of a short flight of stairs and exclaim! "Aduh capek!" (Oh! I am tired)? Recently at a hen gathering, a mammoth revelation hit a friend. Short of saying "Eureka!" and running out in a bath towel she babbled gushingly, "I know the key of radiance of our ancestors - it's housework!"

Spoons of cheesecake suspended, we listened. "Wasn't housework drudgery--it was out of fashion, untrendy and outdated!" said someone.

"Our mothers did so much housework, they even did the gardening. Life in the olden days was not so mechanical and hi- tech," the Eureka pal spoke with an animated face inspired by the revelation. "No microwave and heaters and gas stoves. They bent and heaved and wiped and cleaned. It was natural exercise."

Now she really did have a point there. People in bygone days did more physical work during the day and spent evenings sitting on porches and verandas staring at the stars. Maybe that is why there were less blocked arteries going around. "You know, I think housework is healthy," she ended

Tea cups poised at a tilt some said--"Whaaat..? Housework is healthy?"

I just said, "Here's a storm in a tea-cup."

But then what ever happened to those mothers who washed the bed linen until their nails were worn to the bone, fed the entire family three times a day. They were the first ones to rise early in the morning but sleep last after the last door knob had been locked. They raised daughters who decided that they would not live such boring lives - they would wear power suits, polish their nails to perfection, run banks and corporations.

They did all that and had families that... that ate what the koki (maid) cooked or perhaps frozen TV dinners every night. Back in those days, those that led active lives lived well and long. Pollution, enclosed working conditions have banished fresh air from our lungs. When a whiff does escape by mistake the lungs treat it as a foreign tourist and succumb to masuk angin (catching a chill) etc. A result of this highly civilized, commercial living has a natural stone in water effect on our health and consequently the much coveted "freshness and vitality" on our faces.

So in conclusion was someone saying that the key to a healthy long life was... housework?! So housework it would be!

The revelation did inspire us to trespass over the army of pembantu's (maids) domain and start some serious housework. After all the one week of Lebaran when most of the maids waltz out of the house to visit relatives is not enough for one year of pampered mollycoddling.

Well, a few days later, there I was -- holding up the sofa end with one hand, to look for the naughty little odds and ends that periodically crawl under the sofa to hibernate. With the other hand I was beating the eggs for a chocolate souffle and taking care to balance a set of rollers on my head. My feet were busy too - guiding the vacuum cleaner on the carpet.

Enter the friend who always comes at the wrong moment. "Hi!" she says cheerfully. "What are you doing?"

Maybe she needed glasses. I took a deep breath from under the sofa and simply said, "Prolonging my life!"

-- Pavan Kapoor