Haven’t you always admired people who “jump into work head first”? Are you one of those people who strain “in the mud and muck to move things forward”? (For sure, there’s plenty of mud and muck to go around, and I’m not talking mud and muck.)
And if we’re not going to dive right in and strive for meaningful work, what Marge Piercy calls, “work that is real,” why bother?
Piercy was born in 1936 to a family that suffered deeply during the Depression. It may have been this close experience with poverty that gave her such a WORKING relationship with exuberant hard work. And hard work, even now, is her element.
Unique in her success as both a novelist AND a poet, Piercy’s feminine focus extends itself through feminist activism. That’s “work that is real” FOR REAL.
Now let’s play like REAL literary critics and analyze a small thing in “To Be of Use.” Piercy references Hopi vases that are put in museums, despite the fact that they were meant to be used.
Naturally, this has me thinking about the fine china so many of us keep locked up. Do you save yours for special occasions? Or do you “bust” it out, come what may?
I love this New Girly/Glitzy/Glam Farmgirl Blog that you have decided to do. I think it will be a huge success and a way for you to more intimately connect with all the On-Line MJF Girls. And the whole generational side to it makes it all the more appealing.
Now…go ahead…bless our socks off! Just like you always do!
peggy
I never use my original stoneware, you have reminded me that probably it’s “time” to move on and sell or give it away. It’s been in my china cabinet on display for 30 years, something I need to rethink. I really love your new blog and will look forward to it everyday!
Fortunately for my mother who passed on 20 years ago,my oldest daughter got her good china which saw the light of day maybe twice in their long life.Now it has an honored place in my mom’s china cabinet(which the same daughter inherited).I say fortunately because I am not one of those girls that let pretty stuff sit on a shelf and get dusty.I like lookin’ at it and holdin’ it in my hands.
So since I didn’t inherit the good china I have for years been collecting an assortment of all the everyday dishes that my mom used over the years as I was growing up.Just a piece here and ther till now I have a whole china cabinet filled with the stuff, a very colorful collection.And it gets used at least weekly and some of it daily.And if I happen to break one then I take that as a sign that it’s time to go thrift store or garage sale shopping for something new to add to my collection.
carrie