I’ve lived in probably five or six share houses in the last few years… and had a different system for every house… depending on the people… and depending on the personalities.

Seems to me there is always housework. Somehow in our spoonfed society, housework is a barrier to important recreational activities. Why then do I find ironing and washing clothes such valuable meditation time. Meditation peh. Thinking maybe.

Seems to me that if everyone involved expects to wash just a few more dishes than they actually used… the whole house ends up with dishwashing credits. Of course you never get ahead… but the whole question of WHO’S dishes are they? in community is simply answered. Ours.

Some buddhists and hindus see chores as liberation… routine as freedom. Why have western christians taken on the attitude that life is everything except living. We consume manicly and if we could afford it and pull it off without being teased, would probably buy a fresh shirt every day and give the old one to some old biddy who clearly has a personality disorder because she doesn’t mind washing clothes. (sarcasm)

Now don’t think that I’m good at doing chores on the basis of my comments. I’m not. But I have learned not to go around griping about who hasn’t washed their dishes. Dirty dishes are a reality of living with people… and frankly I’d rather keep the people, and live with the dishes. If I want to fry… why shouldn’t I wash the pan to do it?

Oddly enough my tight secular friend taught me this attitude. He was just a gentleman in that way. He’d always go the extra mile, and inspire me to do likewise. A culture of generosity replaces the need for complex systems. Mind you if too many dishes were neglected for too long he’d speak up till it was done, and then the next day… it would be forgotten.

So to cross to your analogy… in churches… its like you say - we get so busy pointing at the problems and trying to establish which one of ‘them’ should have done something about it. Who cares. It’s our sink. We are all dirtied by the dishes. What opportunities do we have to solve it?

But yeah, its only in stumbling over the conflict and being selfish… and then stopping to realise that there’s probably a higher solution… that we find it. The dishes matter… who’s fault it is matters… but at the end of the day, the problem is more likely to come back to the cause that somebody forgot to LOVE than the symptom - that somebody forgot to WASH.

I cant wait to move into club 65/bachelor house and slip my dishes into your pile.