What I’ve Learned from Emptying My Dishwasher

Some people [like] silently to start off their day. Some do so demonstratively, prostrate, facing Mecca. Some stare intently, while sipping a flavored (gag!) coffee, at birds flitting in a grove of trees outside their kitchen window. Me, I empty the dishwasher, dutifully, as early as I can muster as each new day breaks. That invisible domed area around my sink, including several cabinets and part of the kitchen table, are my cathedral. Just me and my various selves, some eager to chatter, some still sleeping. I especially prize the one that has the presence of mind to start brewing coffee (no fancy timer on my pot) and while later thanking him for not serving up decaf or a carafe of hot water.

Don’t get me wrong – I hate seeing the dishwasher full each morning. I have better things to do – including doing nothing – than to sort, relocate and pack away a bunch of warm and fragile items, most of which I didn’t sully in the first place. It’s just that I’ve trained myself to deal with it and make it disappear earlier rather than later. And in the process, have taken a zen-like approach to the task at hand. It’s now a contemplative and free-thought sort of time wher I listen to my personas speculate, discuss and vie for my attention. The result is profound insights about me and my life, on a daily basis which i’ll try to summarize below.