Prolonging our lives with...housework?

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drudgery--it was out of fashion, untrendy and outdated!"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