Why quit when I’m on a winning streak?
Actually, this is about fewer fiddlies, not more. Over the last few months I have gathered a little collection of don’t or not-as-often directives. Bodies, faces, clothes: don’t wash them as often, partly for the sake of the eco-system but also for your sake. Let’s go back to conspicuous consumption and the obligation of the middle class housewife to keep busy consuming, buying lots of clothes, make-up, cleaning products, appliances, whatever it took to keep the economy going and growing. Blame not only the manufacturers but also, maybe especially, Madison Avenue (it used to be the symbol of the advertising business) for making the consumer the centre of the economy.
As you know, I read a digital daily issue of The New York Times and of The Manchester Guardian. Apart from the news, the politics, the sports , cultural and travel information, there are so-called “think” pieces that in a less prestigious location might be considered ladies’ magazine fluff pieces. The ladies’ magazines, those that have survived, look more like catalogues or consumer reports. And they are all busy selling. Any written pieces are usually no longer than 500 words, 1000, tops, but they are usually hype or puff pieces for an actor. If I were trying to make it a a freelance journalist today, I couldn’t survive on outlets like these. And fiction is long gone. I don’t suppose anyone is old enough to remember Saturday Evening Post or Colliers. I’m not even sure if I got the names right. But I digress..
What I wanted to tell you is that I have read articles in my powerful newspapers urging us not to wash so often. Who needs a shower a day? Use less water. Be kind to your skin and the environment. Same goes for hair, also your face. As for clothes: don’t wash them, especially micro-fibres as they let nano-particles of something or other into the ecosystem and they don’t wear out. So don’t wash clothes, in fact, why buy them? Who needs to by so many clothes? I couldn’t agree more with this latter leap. I love old clothes. These days, when I do buy something new, I look for instant old, somehihng I’ll want to wear forever, or until it feels like it.
How old is your favourite item of clothing? When did you bathe last?