He's just been laid off. He'll be home this year, and everyone thinks he's fine, that he should collect unemployment benefits and rest. His wife tells him yes, he should do it, that if she could—she's self-employed—she'd rest too. That he can't work all his life. They didn't have a wife to do the work, because she did the work herself. Not because she worked less.
But he quits his job. And then, the family asks him to help with the cleaning. Cooking and shopping? No, no. This is privilege. Everyone celebrates and appreciates you for cooking. No one celebrates and appreciates you for sweeping. He went shopping and cooked on Sundays. Holiday food. Never chard on Monday night, always rice from the galleys on Sunday. When what he cooks on Sunday isn't what he cooks on Monday, be wary.
He's never done sweeping, nor has he done laundry, dishwashers, folding clothes, and putting them away. He doesn't like doing it and tells the family that he'll change light bulbs if anything. But she used to do the light bulbs, all the housekeeping. Now he thinks sweeping is ridiculous, that it's not for him, that it can't be done. He hasn't done it for years and doesn't see the need.
As long as he doesn't understand what it means to make a pot of chard and set the table, with paper napkins, for Monday night, he won't know exactly what it means to make a pot of pasta for Sunday. Everyday cooking is the same cooking as holiday cooking, and it should be done by the same person. Otherwise, if the one who cooks on Sunday is him, who, once work is done, goes to bed, tired, and the one who cooks every day is her, who always cleans up, tired or not, the issue is different. And this is the great issue of cooking.
