You Cook, I Wash

I had discovered a domestic system.

It was simple.

You cook.

I wash the dishes.

This arrangement solved several problems at once.

I did not know much about cooking, so I avoided the dangerous part. The other person did not like washing dishes, so they avoided the boring part.

Everybody won.

There was even a backup plan.

If the food was bad, I could say it was excellent.

Praise required no special training.

Then I would wash the dishes.

Washing dishes had an advantage over cooking: success was easy to identify. A plate was dirty, then it became clean.

No one needed to discuss seasoning.

Perhaps I used too much water.

No system is perfect.

Still, I believed I had found the correct division of labor.

The food appears.

The cook feels appreciated.

The sink empties.

Then everyone sits down.

This was not equality in the mathematical sense.

It was better.

It was specialization.

One person did the task the other person disliked more.

The younger version of me considered this domestic genius.

Years later, I can see that it was simply a reasonable agreement described with unnecessary confidence.

But unnecessary confidence was part of the charm.

You cook.

I wash.

I praise.

We rest.

For one household system, that was enough architecture.