June 17, 2026 • 8 mins
When it comes to chores, be a monk!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wax On wax Off. It's one more thing I'm strong.
And that is an ancient reference to the Karate Kid
movies of the eighties.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
I think the eighties. I think the first one is
in the eighties.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Yeah, I want to say eighties.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Young Ralph Maccio and a young whatever. The old Asian
guy was Pat Marita.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
He was Fat Marina from Happy after Arnold retired. It
was what was his character's name, doesn't matter? Uh, yeah,
it's just a fabulous, fabulous character actor, beloved American Institution,
Pat Merita. Anyway. Uh, the whole concept of wax On
(00:46):
wax Off, his character was the sense for the young
Ralph Maccio who wanted to beat down the blond haired kid.
It was cruel, bully senta. But the the idea of
the wax On wax Off was the sort of discipline
you need to develop to become a karate master. And
(01:09):
they did a lot of prune and the bonds, eye
trees and that sort of thing, right right, Yeah, it's
funny that popped into my head. We got this note
from a semi frequent correspondent, Alvin, who's been writing his
emails for years and years and years we're talking about
doing chores and drudgery and that sort of thing. Now
you're at the following I think I've got a way
of dealing with chores as drudgering, making them acceptable like
(01:31):
it appears monks and monasteries do, and something you both
should relate to, since your musicians. When a person wants
to learn an instrument or to sing, practicing is what
you have to do to get proficient. Although I have
run into people like who as teenagers. The first time
they open their mouths, their voices were the sort of
voices that people wanted to hear, and other people may
(01:51):
don't have that anyway, m M. Practice what you do
so you keep doing it even though you don't sound
good and it's just hard, but you keep doing it,
doing it, doing it until you improve. And then he
mentions that back in the day he saw Otis Redding
and James Brown and others close up. I've got a
friend he's a little older than me. He grew up
in Augusta, Georgia, who talks about seeing James Brown working
(02:13):
nightclubs for years because he and his friends were they
couldn't stand country music. They're all about R and B
back in the day, and he says the shows were
just magnificent in a club. I can't even imagine anyway.
Alvin says, I've also had opera singers live nearby and
heard them do voice exercises every morning. I think the
(02:34):
idea is to translate that into washing dishes and cleaning
toilets and shoveling coalmanore into a trailer and then spreading
it in the field. He says, speaking for myself, I
was a farm boy that makes everything work. Is just
another thing like these proverbial monks do. It's talking about
how the monks all look at chore as an effort
(03:02):
to move toward perfection. That you look at washing the
dishes not as getting the dishes clean, but is taking
steps to becoming the perfect dishwasher. Wash them with as
much efficiency and care as you possibly can, till it's
practically an art form. I could believe that if, like
(03:26):
I'm painting a house, washing a dish, you got the
goof from the mac and cheese on there, You scrub
it for a second, and now it's off there.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Man, this is on here hard. I got to remind
of my kids, they got to rinseless stuff off before
they put in this thing.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
You gotta soak damn bitches. Yes, yes, are you buying
that picture? It vacuuming. I've gotten close to that. And oh, oh,
I know one you can relate to mowing lawns.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Yeah, I don't. I don't know if I'm the right person.
I don't have trouble with those kind of things you
just described. I've never had trouble with them. Paperwork is
the one, and I don't know if you can do
that with paperwork.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Yeah. Yeah, although I tell you, one thing we have
going that previous generations really didn't is we can entertain
ourselves while we're doing the drudgery. Right, you got to
You got a big screen TV over there, You got
earbuds in or whatever.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Yeah, that's one of the reasons that doesn't bother me
to do laundry or stuff like that. I'm just listening
to a podcast while I'm doing it.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Anyway.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Yeah, considered exercise and getting information.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
A couple of times through the years I've featured I've
praised Martin Luther King's famous street sweepers speech, which is
just it's inspirational and I wish more people heard it.
But it isn't convenient to the modern narrative. It's part
of King's legacy, and each side leaves behind parts of
(04:55):
Martin Luther King's legacy to serve their own purpose. I
get that. But he was talking talk about how if
you're going to be a street sweeper, be the best
street sweeper that's ever lived, take pride in that perfect it,
and you know everything you do, do it as well
as you possibly can.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
I used to do that. I when I was driving
feed truck and feed lots. I liked being like really
good at it and faster to everybody else at it,
and that sort of thing, and a lot of people
just had no interest in doing anything other than getting
through the day.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
How was that way when I bust tables?
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Yeah, yeah, in vacuuming, you know, if you're on the
sort of rug where you can see where you've done,
because it leaves the you know, like grain changes. I've
sought to, like leave the perfect pattern behind. Is that
like a weird OCD thing or just amusing myself or
is that what the monks are talking about?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
I guess what the monks are talking about. Definitely do
it with mull and lawns. I always did.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Oh yeah, yeah, I'd actually be annoyed if you got
to the end and you got like half a strip
and it's stood out from the full strips that you'd
carefully I'd be like, damn, it is that weird or
pride or one I don't know.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
I remember when mulling your lawn diagonally became a thing
and people just wanted to look different, and that was harder.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Now. I used to when when Baxter, when we lived
in an old house and he'd poop in the backyard,
he'd go out and poop as opposed to us taking
him in a walk. Because our newer house has no fence.
I would certainly be as efficient as I could be
in picking up the poop. But I don't think that
(06:39):
was like imitating the monks monks. I think it was
a person who didn't want to pick up a dog's
extrement for a minute longer than was necessary, right, nor
to step in it having missed some.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
I don't want to spend any more time in the
hot sun picking up crap for free.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Right, So I was meticulous about making sure I missed none.
But again, that wasn't ride that was practicality. So then
picking up the crap was my crappiest chore. But I'd
rather do that all day long than do paperwork.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
No doubt, no doubt, not even close. Am I gonna
have to log into a site that the password doesn't work. No,
I'll just stand out here and pick up the dog boot. Sorry,
there's already a count with that name. Oh, I gotta
get a gun. I'm gonna put it in my mouth.
There we go. Release.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
You couldn't work any cubicle, could you? Jack? No, you
just you're just not made for it.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
No, no, no, I would do some sort of manual labor,
which I'd be perfectly fine with.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Yeah, I'm thinking, I'm trying to picture it. I did well. No,
I had a desk, I had an office, a little office,
but ugh, so bad strokes for different folks. Clean those dishes,
get them shiny.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
That dog boot show some pride, right, Well, I guess
that's it.
Wax On wax Off. It's one more thing I'm strong.
And that is an ancient reference to the Karate Kid
movies of the eighties.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
I think the eighties. I think the first one is
in the eighties.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Yeah, I want to say eighties.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Young Ralph Maccio and a young whatever. The old Asian
guy was Pat Marita.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
He was Fat Marina from Happy after Arnold retired. It
was what was his character's name, doesn't matter? Uh, yeah,
it's just a fabulous, fabulous character actor, beloved American Institution,
Pat Merita. Anyway. Uh, the whole concept of wax On
(00:46):
wax Off, his character was the sense for the young
Ralph Maccio who wanted to beat down the blond haired kid.
It was cruel, bully senta. But the the idea of
the wax On wax Off was the sort of discipline
you need to develop to become a karate master. And
(01:09):
they did a lot of prune and the bonds, eye
trees and that sort of thing, right right, Yeah, it's
funny that popped into my head. We got this note
from a semi frequent correspondent, Alvin, who's been writing his
emails for years and years and years we're talking about
doing chores and drudgery and that sort of thing. Now
you're at the following I think I've got a way
of dealing with chores as drudgering, making them acceptable like
(01:31):
it appears monks and monasteries do, and something you both
should relate to, since your musicians. When a person wants
to learn an instrument or to sing, practicing is what
you have to do to get proficient. Although I have
run into people like who as teenagers. The first time
they open their mouths, their voices were the sort of
voices that people wanted to hear, and other people may
(01:51):
don't have that anyway, m M. Practice what you do
so you keep doing it even though you don't sound
good and it's just hard, but you keep doing it,
doing it, doing it until you improve. And then he
mentions that back in the day he saw Otis Redding
and James Brown and others close up. I've got a
friend he's a little older than me. He grew up
in Augusta, Georgia, who talks about seeing James Brown working
(02:13):
nightclubs for years because he and his friends were they
couldn't stand country music. They're all about R and B
back in the day, and he says the shows were
just magnificent in a club. I can't even imagine anyway.
Alvin says, I've also had opera singers live nearby and
heard them do voice exercises every morning. I think the
(02:34):
idea is to translate that into washing dishes and cleaning
toilets and shoveling coalmanore into a trailer and then spreading
it in the field. He says, speaking for myself, I
was a farm boy that makes everything work. Is just
another thing like these proverbial monks do. It's talking about
how the monks all look at chore as an effort
(03:02):
to move toward perfection. That you look at washing the
dishes not as getting the dishes clean, but is taking
steps to becoming the perfect dishwasher. Wash them with as
much efficiency and care as you possibly can, till it's
practically an art form. I could believe that if, like
(03:26):
I'm painting a house, washing a dish, you got the
goof from the mac and cheese on there, You scrub
it for a second, and now it's off there.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Man, this is on here hard. I got to remind
of my kids, they got to rinseless stuff off before
they put in this thing.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
You gotta soak damn bitches. Yes, yes, are you buying
that picture? It vacuuming. I've gotten close to that. And oh, oh,
I know one you can relate to mowing lawns.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Yeah, I don't. I don't know if I'm the right person.
I don't have trouble with those kind of things you
just described. I've never had trouble with them. Paperwork is
the one, and I don't know if you can do
that with paperwork.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Yeah. Yeah, although I tell you, one thing we have
going that previous generations really didn't is we can entertain
ourselves while we're doing the drudgery. Right, you got to
You got a big screen TV over there, You got
earbuds in or whatever.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Yeah, that's one of the reasons that doesn't bother me
to do laundry or stuff like that. I'm just listening
to a podcast while I'm doing it.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Anyway.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Yeah, considered exercise and getting information.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
A couple of times through the years I've featured I've
praised Martin Luther King's famous street sweepers speech, which is
just it's inspirational and I wish more people heard it.
But it isn't convenient to the modern narrative. It's part
of King's legacy, and each side leaves behind parts of
(04:55):
Martin Luther King's legacy to serve their own purpose. I
get that. But he was talking talk about how if
you're going to be a street sweeper, be the best
street sweeper that's ever lived, take pride in that perfect it,
and you know everything you do, do it as well
as you possibly can.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
I used to do that. I when I was driving
feed truck and feed lots. I liked being like really
good at it and faster to everybody else at it,
and that sort of thing, and a lot of people
just had no interest in doing anything other than getting
through the day.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
How was that way when I bust tables?
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Yeah, yeah, in vacuuming, you know, if you're on the
sort of rug where you can see where you've done,
because it leaves the you know, like grain changes. I've
sought to, like leave the perfect pattern behind. Is that
like a weird OCD thing or just amusing myself or
is that what the monks are talking about?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
I guess what the monks are talking about. Definitely do
it with mull and lawns. I always did.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Oh yeah, yeah, I'd actually be annoyed if you got
to the end and you got like half a strip
and it's stood out from the full strips that you'd
carefully I'd be like, damn, it is that weird or
pride or one I don't know.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
I remember when mulling your lawn diagonally became a thing
and people just wanted to look different, and that was harder.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Now. I used to when when Baxter, when we lived
in an old house and he'd poop in the backyard,
he'd go out and poop as opposed to us taking
him in a walk. Because our newer house has no fence.
I would certainly be as efficient as I could be
in picking up the poop. But I don't think that
(06:39):
was like imitating the monks monks. I think it was
a person who didn't want to pick up a dog's
extrement for a minute longer than was necessary, right, nor
to step in it having missed some.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
I don't want to spend any more time in the
hot sun picking up crap for free.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Right, So I was meticulous about making sure I missed none.
But again, that wasn't ride that was practicality. So then
picking up the crap was my crappiest chore. But I'd
rather do that all day long than do paperwork.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
No doubt, no doubt, not even close. Am I gonna
have to log into a site that the password doesn't work. No,
I'll just stand out here and pick up the dog boot. Sorry,
there's already a count with that name. Oh, I gotta
get a gun. I'm gonna put it in my mouth.
There we go. Release.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
You couldn't work any cubicle, could you? Jack? No, you
just you're just not made for it.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
No, no, no, I would do some sort of manual labor,
which I'd be perfectly fine with.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Yeah, I'm thinking, I'm trying to picture it. I did well. No,
I had a desk, I had an office, a little office,
but ugh, so bad strokes for different folks. Clean those dishes,
get them shiny.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
That dog boot show some pride, right, Well, I guess
that's it.
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