laundry

i've always been puzzled by the expression 'don't air your dirty laundry in public' because who really airs dirty laundry? i understand the intention behind the idiom, but as a metaphor i think it falls short.

yesterday i wrote a blog that i subsequently deleted. it would probably fall in the category of dirty laundry, or at least things better discussed in private. so, apologies if you clicked the link that i failed to delete from facebook only to be greeted by a page-not-found-message.

growing up one of my chores was hanging the clean laundry on the clothes line. of course, no chore is desirable to a child, but i remember enjoying the ritual of it. the laundry smelled delicious right after the washer and it was cool and wet, a welcome combination in the muggy heat of savannah. there were strict guidelines about the proper way to hang each item to ensure the dried, stiff article would be wearable without excessive ironing. and though my shoulders would ache, i loved the way the wooden clothes pins felt between my small fingers and the corridors of waving shirts and towels that enclosed me as i emptied the basket.

clean laundry airing in the not-quite-public of our back yard. that's what i remember. i'd dry my laundry that way now if i didn't have a pesky homeowner's association that would surely object.

sigh

at any rate, i think it's a good policy to keep the dirty laundry in the basket and the clean laundry on the line. and that's all i really have to say about it.

d: fresh, clean laundry drying in the sun
b: page-not-found
g: good advice