Around the House

In women's affairs much is said about elegance, beauty, charm, and the rest — matters of the home, the etiquette of company, and good marital policy. These are essential matters whose value may on no account be neglected. Yet we have rarely heard of household duties extending beyond the walls of the house, as though the lady or the girl were hostage to modesty alone, or as though she could accomplish nothing without the witness of those cold walls, or as though she had contented herself with rivaling the darkness in gloom and idleness.

And since our country stands on the threshold of a momentous development in social life, thanks to the knowledge woman has acquired and the directions that acquisition has given her, we prefer that this development be natural, not a sudden leap followed by regret. We therefore advise woman to widen her domestic circle and to give attention to what lies around the house, in addition to the furnishings, furniture, and vessels within it.

God has blessed our country, over and above the enchantment of its scenery, with regions rich in soil fit for planting — so much so that part of it was given in history the name of the Fertile Crescent. You may apply the name "valley" to most of the Arab lands: here the valleys of the Orontes, the Barada, and the Jordan; there the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates; and yonder the valley of the Nile — not to mention the greenery the other lands enjoy in countryside, oases, and desert shores. It is not our concern to expand upon this sketch, lest the discussion turn into agricultural economics, which is not what is meant here.

We aim rather to call attention to the necessity of woman doing some work in the garden, for many reasons that touch her being as a personality of great radiance in her surroundings — over and above the honor nature has bestowed on her of gentle, mighty motherhood. We shall mention the abundant benefits that result from this after we set out for her the kind of work in question. What we mean is the simplest sort of cultivation on a narrow scale:

1 - So long as you have a plot of land beside your house, it must not remain fallow.

2 - However pressed your time may be, you can set aside just one hour each day to care for that land, planting it with flowers and sweet herbs... and some useful vegetables such as lettuce, kale, turnips, cabbage, and others that are

rich in the essential vitamins.

3 - If you have a gardener, or if your husband himself is the one who does the gardening, it is more fitting that you should have the upper hand in the pleasure the two of them enjoy. If you take part in the work, your delight in it will grow, and there will arise in you the desire to reach a goal of noble meaning: to adorn your home with the produce of your own hands and to feed your children by the sweat of your brow. How lovely it is to pull up a lettuce that you planted as a seed, tended as a seedling, and watched over daily. In any case, recourse must be had to your sound judgment in arrangement, layout, and variety; this is your charge and to your credit, for by your nature you have been granted a taste and an artistry indispensable in every circumstance, and above all in this one.

As for the benefits to be harvested from this work, they are too great to be counted, but the chief ones must be classified:

1 - Physical benefits: Sowing seeds in a plot of ground that you have tended through all the operations it requires brings you a beneficial exercise without equal, if you seek an even figure and a graceful form — not to mention the praiseworthy training in breathing in the open air, free of tedium and boredom. Perhaps you have heard of one of Hollywood's stars of gracefulness who practices tearing up paper in the morning and scattering it over the floor of the room, then goes back and gathers it up piece by piece, so as to obtain the very exercise we are speaking of. I hold you far above imitating her.

2 - Mental benefits: When you care for the little garden, it will not escape you that you are dealing with one of the three kingdoms of existence, and the nearest of them to your own kingdom. In planting, growth, and harvest lie the sublime secrets of creation that prompt contemplation and thought. Moreover, this work may spur you to greater curiosity about the phenomena and riddles that rise in your path, whose essence you ought to know. Not to mention that it opens for you a topic of conversation with your gracious lady visitors, from which a rare perfume wafts.

3 - Psychological benefits: It is an established principle in psychology that persistence in one particular task or one fixed method brings despair upon its practitioner, just as too much talk about the politics of the country makes one lose hope of its success. How much more, then, your housework, which you practice daily and perhaps in one unvarying routine. It bequeaths you worry and despondency, and there is no remedy for you but a change of work. Some may advise recourse to the soft bed — and no harm in that after fatigue — but if this remedy is resorted to for cure too long, it becomes a disease that comes back to shatter the personality. Working in the little garden lets your thoughts roam, restores vigor to your heart and radiance to your face, and you find yourself in a fitter state to return to the other household matters with eagerness and strength.

4 - Spiritual benefits: In the little garden you can contemplate God's handiwork and the surpassing skill with which He has prepared for every stage its properties, and the wonders of the process of creation that attend it. The kinship of resemblance between our human life and the life of flowers and herbs will not escape you. And how lovely it is to ponder long over what the seeds suggest.

5 - Conjugal benefits: We shall not leave this subject without mentioning to you something of the most important benefits sought from this temptation. Suppose your husband returned from work or from a journey and saw you pruning the roses, or caressing the jasmine, or watering the violets, your face aflame with red and your eyes sparkling with vigor — in what spirit would he greet you? No doubt you know that best.