The case for a brave new pillow
With Aldous Huxley’s satire in the back of my mind, sniggering, I stole 10 minutes this afternoon to alter and repair two pillowcases. A pair of king-sized cases, their corners had frayed because I let the pillow protector’s zipper-pull worry the same corners over and over, with predictable results.
The plan (since last Monday) was to throw them out. I thought of my intention (to clear the clutter, remove old junk, get rid of broken things), but instead I weakened, …and fixed them.
O Brave New World, it seems you’re not for me after all?
In case the reader has forgotten, Huxley’s Brave New World among other things required the erasure of history and sentiment, and therefore forbade darning or repairing any consumer item – especially socks. In the brave new world, people don’t fix things, they buy new ones.
Except that sometimes it’s really hard to find good pillowcases that manage to combine something you like to look at with something you like to feel. I’m fond of the barest hint of chinoiserie in the pattern, and pleased by the fabric’s cottony softness.
(The solution: turn the king-sized cases into standard-sized cases by sewing a new straight seam across the top and cutting off the excess fabric.)
If only the rest of my de-cluttering and ridding myself of broken junk were going to be as easy as fixing pillowcases.
Oh well, at least I can sleep on my plans to conquer the world through better house-keeping, familiar case that it is.
Brave new world indeed…