Start Quote
Bennett's niche was as "everyman"...
One of his best-loved books was
an art we all should aspire to master.
In "The Home as a Hobby," Mr. Bennett writes,
"The home exists.
The home is accepted.
Life can be, and is, lived in it.
That vase does not suit that mantelpiece.
That carpet will not go with that wallpaper...
The foot of the bed interferes with
the swinging of the bedroom door.
The whole of the dining-room furniture
is seen to have been a mistake.
The hall has a poverty-stricken aspect.
The two principal pictures in the drawing-room
are too high on the wall.
A hundred things are just a little wrong
and a few things dreadfully wrong!
But no matter.
The apparatus somehow works.
The desire after perfection has failed.
The home has become immutable.
There the home is!
It will do.
It must do...
Nobody has the right to be bored in a half-made home.
A home which is not a fair expression of us at our best,
a home which lacks what it might have,
a home which is in any part more ugly or in any part
more uncomfortable than it absolutely need be...
a home which cannot be run without waste,
a home which by any detail gets on the nerves of its inhabitants
and so impairs the harmony of their existence -
something ought to be done about such a home...
Why not make the perfecting of the home a hobby?"
...
If I approach our house as a hobby instead of a chore,
maybe I'll find the time to stain the front door,
refinish a dresser,
varnish the hardwood floor,
create a nook of my own.
"Your home may be a small one
- most peoples homes are -
but you will never have finished perfecting it,"
Arnold Bennett tells us.
"The subject is vast and knows no bounds."
End Quote
Yep. Not really much more to add.
Thanks Mr Bennett.
***
Gratitude Journal
***
1) Date night. No kids, amazing food and music, good company.
2) Ribs, the best chili cheese fries I've ever had, and buffalo blue cheese mac n' cheese. Mac not crack.
3) Live music. There is such an energy, such a liveliness, it's so good. And the man with the wicked dance moves, thanks for making my night.
4) When dogs look like their owners. Does Indy look like Robbie and I?
5) When the kids are outnumbered. All I can do is laugh in my head, because even with all three throwing tantrums there are four adults. I don't know why it's so hilarious, maybe because a part of me still thinks that they're out to get me.
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