The Cure as Prophylactic

In one of her usual wonderful posts, Wende mentions that she's not curing because the cure isn't a prophylactic* but a cure--and her apartment is all cured now, thank you.

She's right, it isn't, even though Maxwell said he was "happy that folks were coming back and caring for their apartments" or some such thing.

If the Cure is not a prophylactic, but a cure, then what is it supposed to be curing?

I think it's supposed to be curing the way young urban people live in their apartments. All the gentle proddings to cook make sense, now.

The prescription could also be written for folks who accumulate too much stuff and live in their space as if it's a storage locker. It's also a prescription for the opposite, folks who think their home is a hotel en-suite, good for brief stop-overs.

The Cure is also good for those who want to thoroughly plan and execute a small renovation or large decorating project. All the steps are helpfully spaced out and scheduled in the One Room Remedy.

In its most diluted form, it's a programme for freshening up your home and becoming engaged with it again, if you're prone to ignoring it, as I have become, for various reasons. (It requires a lot of attention, my home, and I am a rebellious child. If it wants me, I don't want it. The reverse is also true.) Under this category falls "Spring Cleaning" and assorted projects, like cleaning out the basement.

Reading the progress reports and checking out the blogs, which I do far more than is healthy for me or my home, I've noticed that people seem to be using the cure--not doing the Cure. Very few are following the programme as written. Instead, they seem to be using the on-line experience as a forum for posting their progress (or lack of it) and getting support and encouragement. (Though there aren't that many encouragers around, not like there used to be. I get my encouragement from all of you, so it doesn't bother me. Perhaps just having a place to tell others about what you're doing is encouraging; I know it is for me.)

It doesn't matter whether anyone follows the prescription, really. If "engaging with your home" is the goal, then it honestly doesn't matter if you clean the bathroom in Week two or week whenever.

But this leaves me with an interesting conundrum. My home will never be "cured." It is too cantankerous for that. There will always be something it needs. And as we get to one thing when time and budget allow, it will need something else. But, that's the nature of an old cantankerous house.

As for engaging with it, it needs housekeeping therapy--not flowers every week, though flowers certainly are wonderful. This week it got a lot: (yes, time for a picture)

(They were free. My husband brought them home from work).

No matter what form it takes, I like the cure. I like watching folks become excited about their home. I love seeing people either add or subtract to make it more homey. I love seeing people trying and doing new things and rearranging furniture on paper. I love looking at pictures of real places. And before and afters are always exciting.

But, I'm not sure where that leaves me.


*I had to go look that up. I haven't ever encountered the word in a (ahem) non-clinical setting and I realised I didn't really know what it meant.