Tom and I want to grow old and we want to grow old healthily and active. For this, we pursue 3 goals in life.
Our first goal is personal: we want to feel happy and healthy and have an active life.
Secondly, we have a social goal: we want to be able to help each other and others in our social circle, if necessary and desired.
Thirdly, we pursue a collective goal: the happier and healthier we are, the less burdensome we are for others and public care.
Both Tom and I talk a lot about contributing and reciprocity in society. With our friends. In our blog posts. In our Facebook posts. Most of the time this is about volunteering in some way or another. But there are many other ways.
Reciprocity in society is a common gesture. A neighbor smiles at us and next time when they are not at home, we collect their delivered goods from the courier.
Society is built on written and unwritten laws. Some are evident. You do not enter another person’s house without an invitation. Others are less obvious. For example, when you borrow your neighbors’ chainsaw, they might expect you to be extra careful when you use it.
The opening sentence of the book Clothing and Health: An Elementary Textbook of Home Making, is: “Our clothes are important for they help to keep us well. … Sewing is an art that all girls should learn. If we know how to sew, we can keep our clothes in order and always be neat and attractive in appearance.”
The book was published in 1920 and exclusively targets girls. In 1920 in the US, women spent over a billion dollars a year on textile materials alone.
To be neat and attractive, are not the only arguments the book introduces to explain why women should know how to sew their own clothes. Arguments that still carry some weight from our perspective: to know how to sew would make women aware of the costs of clothes, and the durability, and whether the clothes are comfortable. Perhaps it’s good to add that this also applies to men.