What did I ever do without a dishwasher?

I remember life well without a dishwasher. My mom started me young on learning the basic human principles of keeping a tidy house. Rather, she forced it on me. Mainly because I hated the duties, any and all, associated with keeping a tidy house. Especially since it seemed I never seemed to clean and tidy at the level of expectation that my mom had. I seemed to always leave steaks on the mirrors, would miss a patch of floor while sweeping and definitely didn't lift every ceramic niknak, positioned just-so, on the endless flat surfaces to dust under them. I grew up for the first 24 years of my life living in a home without a dishwasher.

It is for this reason, and only reason that I can surmise, that I have an affinity for washing dishes...by hand. Yes. I'll admit, even when I have a dishwasher I seem to bypass the electrical powered wash box for the soap and suds in a sink full of warm water. I seem to prefer to get my hands wet and scrub the grease off the dishes, pots and pans, with the help of Palmolive or any other new dish soap that promises to keep my hands soft and smooth while I do the dishes (see previous entry regarding my affinity for new shampoos...this is a similar obsession).

Anyhow, it was just earlier this week that I noticed our new home doesn't have a dishwasher. While unpacking more kitchen items (I'm quite prepared for almost any dish I love to whip up...yet, I can still think of additional cooking utensils and pans that I could use), it dawned on me that the kitchen was without the electric wash box. As I thought about it further I realized that a dishwasher was not even on our list of "must have" items (such as an air conditioner) when we started looking for a new place to inhabit. For a moment I thought it odd that I didn't put that on our list. The more I thought about it I realized how unimportant having a dishwasher was to me. Even during the times I've had one, it was probably used only about 25% of the time.

Then in my usual fashion of pondering things further, I imagined all the things I actually get done in my head while I'm washing dishes. I plan out my day, think about my life, question my purpose, mentally prepare a grocery store shopping list...the list goes on. As a matter of fact, usually when I'm dealing with something stressful, cooking and washing dishes seem to be very therapeutic for me. There's nothing like chopping veggies or scrubbing pots and pans when I need to let out a little stress.

So what do I do without a dishwasher? Well, I talk to myself quite a bit and have pretty deep conversations with God. I ponder things in my life, evaluate decisions I've made, contemplate decisions I need to make, marinate on things that need my attention, question my motives, values and ethics, try to make sense of my mistakes, and well, if Palmolive isn't lying in the marketing of their product, my hands are getting moisturized at the same time.

Who needs a dishwasher? Not me!!!